After an accident happens, after making sure that you are fine, your next inclination is to assess the damage on your car. You’ve looked at your bumper and it’s ‘only’ a scratch. The other driver pleads with you not to call the cops and promises to fix your car at their expense. The at-fault driver is swayed by the false presumption that a car traveling at a low speed (10 mph or less) cannot cause serious injury to its victim.
Low impact accidents may lead to various kinds of soft tissue injuries due to whiplash, such as back pains, neck pains and headaches to mention a few. Most soft tissue injuries are treated within a month or two while others may require longer periods to complete treatment especially if the victim had preexisting injury before the accident.
Regular sized automobiles can deliver a force of about 3 to 4 tons when driving at a low speed (this obviously increases with bigger vehicles such as SUVs, trucks, etc). The risk of injury increases for rear end collisions and this can be dangerous even when a car is barely moving due to the concept of the ‘magnification of acceleration’. This is a straightforward theory which asserts that people inside the vehicle will accelerate much faster than the vehicle itself and therefore will absorb most of the force of the impact during a low speed collision than a high speed collision (relatively speaking) because there is more resistance to impact when your car is at a standstill or otherwise moving slowly.
The worst part of this for accident victims is insurance adjusters, backed by billion dollar corporations, are usually in a haste to deny claims of injuries from these types of accidents on the ground that the victim’s injury has ‘no causal relationship to the medical treatment incurred’ or in lay mans terms: your accident did not cause your injury. At best, an adjuster will offer $500 to settle the claim. Unfortunately, most victims give up at this stage and settle. The key for the victim is seeking prompt treatment, following the prescribed treatment plan and if possible, keeping a diary to document the changes to their daily routine as a result of the injury.
In any event, injuries from low impact accidents are notoriously difficult to settle. For this reason, a lot of lawyers, reject these type of cases. However, if you sustained injuries in a low impact car accident, Attorney Uzoma Obi is a seasoned professional in handling all sorts of auto accident cases and he will aggressively fight on your behalf regardless of how slow the cars were travelling or how little the impact of the accident. Fill out the online form on our website, https://www.obilawoffice.com/book-online or call 301-453-7177 to schedule a free consultation today.