Injuries Caused By Truck Accidents

Injuries obtained from a truck accident are much more critical compared to a car accident. The size of the truck combined with its force when hitting a pedestrian, cyclist, motorcyclist, or a regular vehicle can cause damage to your body that’s permanent or long-lasting. When they collide with anything on the road, the damage they can cause to anyone or anything they strike is catastrophic.

Some of the most common injuries from a collision with a large commercial truck are the following:

HEAD INJURIES

Head injuries obtained from a truck crash are typically the most severe aside from wrongful death and comes in two types:

• Open head injury: when a skull gets fractured resulting in substantial damage to the skull, head, and brain.
• Closed head injury: when an injury was sustained in the brain, but the skull was not fractured.

Both of these are extremely serious, but a closed head injury is riskier since there is no room for the swelling or accumulated blood to go. This causes damage to some parts of the brain because of the significant pressure it will create on it.

When a human brain has suffered significant or widespread damage, it is already classified as TBI or traumatic brain injury. Often, these damages are typically permanent and may lead to victims experiencing problems with cognitive function, exhausting headaches, and issues on their motor skills like coordination, balance, as well as movement. There are times when a victim with TBI may never be able to get a job or perform normal and daily routines.

There are even instances when they need assistance all the time or nursing care.

SPINAL CORD INJURY

Our spinal cord runs from the base of our brain down to our back and pelvis. Very hard bones called vertebrae encases it. There are also nerves emanating from it through small holes in every individual vertebra that extends to our legs, arms, feet, and hands. The purpose of these nerves is to provide sensation to us and help us with our movement.

When large truck accident victims suffer injuries to their spinal cord, it can result in a partial or full impairment of sensation or their ability to move some parts of their bodies. An incomplete or full spinal cord injury can lead to partial or complete paralysis as well.

Depending on the location of the spine injury, the victim may sustain paraplegia or the impairment of the lower limbs or quadriplegia, which is the diminishing capability of all four limbs. SCI often leads to victims being confined in a wheelchair or become bedridden all their life, and may also cost them millions of dollars.

NECK AND BACK INJURIES

Grave neck and back injuries are commonly sustained by victims of commercial truck collisions. The back and forth whipping action by the victim which tends to be violent when hit by a large truck is the main reason for this. There are times when the gel-like material known as discs cushioning our vertebrae on top of one another can be pushed out from their alignment or gets damaged. The spinal cord’s nerves can be affected as a result. The common back and neck injuries include:

• Nerve damage
• Herniated discs
• Dislocated discs.

Victims normally need to undergo surgery to try to lessen or prevent the unbearable pain. These injuries are life-changing and can debilitate a victim, leaving them unable to carry their kids or grandchildren ever again. 4

BROKEN BONES

Collisions with a truck are extremely powerful, so it’s quite common for bones to break or get fractured. A lot of times, the broken bones are so severe that a victim needs to undergo surgery to repair them. There are also times when plates, rods, screws, pins, and other painful hardware are needed so that the bone can stabilize and heal.

INTERNAL INJURIES

The surprising impact of the force from a truck collision can lacerate or smash our organs easily even if they are protected by layers of muscles and our rib cage. Victims can suffer from horrendous pain and get incapacitated permanently from injuries from the kidneys, heart, liver, and lungs.

WRONGFUL DEATH

Wrongful death is probably the most terminal personal injury in all commercial truck crashes. Even if a large truck is not speeding, a collision from it can still result in fatalities. The victim’s family can receive compensation to help them become stable financially, to heal and move forward, but still, it can never replace the loss of a loved one.