Lakeland Rear-End Collision Lawyer

Recently in a rear-end collision? Most people know there is a presumption of fault if you are rear-ended in Florida. Fortunately, most rear-endings are minor accidents causing few medical problems, when traffic is moving slowly. However, traffic doesn’t always have to be moving fast for injury to occur, especially if you’re in a small compact car. The type of car you drive makes a difference. Cars rated high in crash safety tests are less likely to have accidents with severe injuries. If an SUV or truck hits your small car with a poor crash testing rating, you and your occupants could sustain severe injuries.

Injuries could also be compounded if the occupants are older or have any underlying health conditions. Surprisingly, under similar accidents not everyone experiences the same type or severity of injury. The most common type of rear-end injury is whiplash, which damages the neck or spine. This is caused by a sudden impact throwing the body forward, which causes a rapid back and forth motion in the neck vertebrae, like a whip.

You could experience a number of neck problems including

• Stiffness
• Loss of the range of motion
• Worsening pain
• Headaches at the base of the skull
• Tenderness in the shoulder

This sudden force of a rear-ending could also create severe back, brain and facial injuries for you. Vision loss, bone fractures and paralysis could also occur. As a victim, you could also experience anxiety, stress, and other related long-term psychological problems. These symptoms could even present themselves down the road in the form of post-traumatic stress disorder and chronic pain relating to the rear-end collision.

Elastic Collision

This type of rear-end collision also plays a role in the severity of your injuries. There are two types of collisions, if you recall from your high school physics class. In an elastic collision, most of the momentum of the vehicle hitting you would be transferred to your car.

This is the worst type of collision to have, since it will cause a sudden acceleration of your car, causing injuries. This sudden acceleration depends on the mass and speed of the vehicle hitting you. If a truck has twice the mass of your car and it rear-ends you, your car could instantly double in speed.

Plastic Collision

In an inelastic, or a plastic collision, the momentum of the vehicle hitting you is dissipated into other forms of energy. There isn’t nearly the same type of sudden increase in speed as you would experience in an elastic collision.

During this type of collision, the car hitting you sticks to your rear bumper. If you had a choice, this type of rear-end collision would be your safest bet. That’s why bumpers are designed to collapse and absorb energy to avoid the transference of momentum during a rear-end.

It’s expensive to fix but well worth the expense to save you from potential long-term injury during a rear-end collision.

Follow Up with Your Medical Provider

No matter what type of rear-end collision you’ve been involved in, make sure you get a full medical check-up, ideally within 14 days, to document any type of injury. Even if there are no serious complications today, they may diagnose a condition like whiplash that could worsen in time.

If you develop a serious medical injury years after the accident, and it wasn’t properly documented, compensation may be difficult.