In motor vehicle accidents, often times passengers or drivers will suffer what they refer to as whiplash injuries. Whiplash is, more or less, an all-encompassing term for many different things that may happen to the spine, the cervical spine, the lumbar spine, even to the brain. What happens, if you have ever seen it in slow motion, when a car is hit in the rear, if you are in a stopped position you’re actually pushed backwards and your head goes back over the head rest, and then you are propelled forwards.
You can’t appreciate how fast these things happen until you actually see it in slow motion. As a result of those injuries, a young person who has no known issues in their neck or back may sustain herniated or bulging discs. Other connective structures within their back and neck can be affected as well. These injuries may have lifelong effects on a person depending on the severity of the whiplash that has occurred during their accident. For someone who is older, who has a pre-existing degenerative condition in their back or in their neck that may have never caused them a problem, or they may have some minor problems with it, is now just terrible as a result of that accident. These injuries can be so severe that a person may no longer be able to do the daily activities that they once participated in as easily as they once could, or at all for that matter. That is something which is definitely related to the automobile accident, the worsening of it, and the driver of the other vehicle involved in the accident can be responsible if that injury arises to the level of serious physical injury.
If you are in need of legal counsel in regards to a personal injury in New York, please contact The Law Offices of Jonathan D. Sands and we would be happy to assist you.