Trucking accidents are serious business and can cause severe injuries. Even worse, many of them are fatal. According to studies, nearly 4,136 people died in large truck accidents in 2018.
Unfortunately, when these horrible incidents occur, many of the victims are left picking up the pieces. Insurance companies are slow to pay and accident victims have to deal with pain and suffering.
If you’ve been in a truck crash, keep reading to learn about the most common injuries after trucking accidents and how a Sumter truck accident lawyer can help you.
Common Trucking Accident Injuries
Truck accidents can cause excruciating pain and trauma. The impact from a large truck causes serious damage. Below are the most common truck accident injuries:
Soft Tissue Damage
If a person is jostled, shaken around, or ejected from a vehicle during a trucking accident, they might endure sprains, tears of the muscle, and strains in the tendon and ligaments.
In most situations, vehicle passengers suffer soft tissue injuries after being hit by items like broken glass, loose cargo, or sheared metal.
Broken Bones
The blunt-force trauma that occurs during a truck collision can cause an individual to suffer a broken leg, ankle, arm, foot, hand, collarbone, sternum, facial bones, pelvis, or ribs.
Someone with a basic broken arm or leg might need to spend a few weeks in a cast. If someone endures a compound or complex fracture, they may also require surgery and an extended stay in the hospital.
Burns
Some big tanker trucks haul flammable cargo, which makes them prone to explosions and fires during a collision. Many individuals endure burns from truck accidents due to contact with steam or hot water that spills from a broken radiator.
It could also be caused by hot metal that’s thrown from the truck. Serious third and fourth-degree burns lead to traumatic injuries. They result in long recovery times and pose an ongoing threat of infection and other complications.
Whiplash
The impactful forces caused by a trucking accident can make a person’s head and neck pull backward and suddenly spring forward. This whiplash motion could strain and sprain the muscles, ligaments, joints, and tendons within the neck.
Whiplash usually heals within a few weeks. On the other hand, some individuals with whiplash experience chronic pain and other severe neck issues.
Spinal Injuries
A hit to the back or quick movement during a truck accident could break the vertebrae of the spine or rip the spinal cord. A broken back may cause long-term pain and loss of mobility, even with surgery.
Trauma to the spinal cord leads to paralysis. Depending on the severity of the injury, a paralyzed individual might keep a percentage of their movement and sensation. They could also regain it as a result of intense therapy.
Internal Injuries
Blunt or penetrating trauma caused during a truck accident could impair internal organs like the heart, liver, spleen, bowels, stomach, or kidneys. Fractures to the ribs or chest bone could potentially cause pieces of bone to plunge into the internal organs.
Internal bleeding and ruptured organs generally require surgery. As a result of the injury, a person may go into shock or suffer an infection. Sadly, this situation might be fatal.
Emotional Suffering
The aftermath of enduring a devastating injury or witnessing a loved one’s severe trauma during a trucking accident can result in massive psychological damage. Some people experience post-traumatic stress disorder.
A lengthy or uncertain recovery from a severe injury or disability may also cause depression. Emotional injuries are just as real and compensable in a truck accident case as physical injuries.
Reasons Why You Need a Personal Injury Lawyer
After a trucking accident, many victims are left in shambles. A terrible vehicle collision can completely turn a person’s life upside down. However, hiring a South Carolina personal injury lawyer can help.
If you or a loved has been in a truck accident, here’s why you need an attorney on your side:
Lost wages: Starting a truck accident claim will demand reimbursement for lost salary or wages due to absent time from work. In a situation where a trucking accident causes disability, you can also seek any future wages that you might lose due to not being able to work.
A South Carolina truck accident attorney can make sure you’re treated fairly and get the compensation you deserve.
Medical bills: All of the common truck accident injuries listed above can lead to expensive medicals expenses. A car crash could create emergency room bills, as well as expenses for extended hospital stays, rehabilitation, chiropractic care, and more.
Not only that, but if the accident caused permanent disabilities, the responsible party should be held liable to pay for healthcare expenses. A Columbia truck accident attorney makes sure that you are paid a proper settlement.
Pain and suffering: As previously stated, a trucking accident can ruin a person’s life. A lawsuit helps an individual seek compensation for physical and non-physical harm. If a person experiences emotional distress, a lower quality of life, and other setbacks, they are owed compensation for it.
Wrongful death damages: When an accident is fatal, economic damages are due to the family to cover funeral and burial costs. Additionally, a victim’s loved ones need non-economic damages as well for wrongful death, anguish, and loss of companionship. Contact our South Carolina Wrongful Death Attorney for more information.
Help for Victims of Common Injuries After Trucking Accidents in South Carolina
Are you suffering from truck accident injuries? If so, Burriss and Ridgeway, Columbia Injury Lawyers are here to help. We offer clients assistance with receiving compensation for common truck accident injuries, as well as medical malpractice, defective products, family law, and more.
If you have any questions for us, call 803-451-4000 or contact us online.
We look forward to helping you with your case.
