Truck-involved auto accidents tend to be especially destructive and lead to higher fatality rates. When people are hit by trucks, they often experience harsh, long-term injuries from the ordeal. Even at slow speeds, these types of accidents can cause a lot of damage. By staying safe behind the wheel, you can prevent truck-involved auto accidents. However, it’s important to remain educated about the dangers of such accidents:
1. Broken Bones
Because of the high-impact nature of truck accident-related injuries, broken bones are commonplace. Fractures, full breaks, hairline fractures, and more can befall the victim during these accidents. Depending on how a person is sitting when they get into the accident, the bones that are broken or fractured can vary wildly. For example, if a person sits incredibly close to their wheel when driving, the force of the crash and their airbag can lead to serious rib cage fractures. Driving in a safe position can help you minimize your injuries during truck-involved auto accidents, and will give you better overall control of your vehicle as well. When you’re injured in an auto accident through no fault of your own, you can hire a truck accident lawyer to seek damages.
2. Burn Injuries
Unfortunately, there are many truck-involved accidents where a vehicle is damaged enough to make it burst into flames. When this occurs, the person in the burning vehicle may not have the ability to immediately exit the vehicle. This situation can lead to harsh burns, which are often either second or third-degree burns. Seatbelts and other safety devices can rub up against people involved in the crash in ways that cause burn injuries as well. Burn injuries are incredibly painful, and lead to some of the most traumatic damage that people experience in truck-related auto accidents. Treating these burns ASAP is of the utmost importance post-accident.
3. Brain Injuries
The human head is incredibly fragile. Even in slow-speed accidents involving trucks, the sheer force and pressure smaller vehicle operators experience is immense. Due to this, traumatic brain injuries, and other brain-related injuries, are commonplace in truck-involved auto accidents. Airbags, when not properly installed or maintained, have been known to hit people in the head in a way that causes traumatic brain injuries. Additionally, objects within or outside of a vehicle can fly directly into a person’s head during an accident. Once again, it’s crucial that you’re keeping yourself in a secure, safe position when driving (as this will help you prevent serious injuries more effectively). Staying aware on the road is made easier by practicing daily mental health exercises.
4. Whiplash Injuries
If you’ve ever been in any type of auto accident, you’ve probably suffered from some degree of whiplash. Whiplash occurs when your neck and spine are suddenly put under immense stress and pressure. The massive force put onto drivers when they’re involved in truck-involved auto accidents nearly always leads to some degree of whiplash. In the most severe whiplash cases, paralysis, or even death, can occur. Whiplash can lead to serious long-term nerve damage and health side effects as well. While wearing your seatbelt properly and having your headrest at the right height helps to protect against whiplash injuries, they are difficult to prevent entirely. When you’re rear-ended, the severity of whiplash is often much higher.
5. Amputation Injuries
Some of the most traumatic injuries people suffer from truck-involved auto accidents are amputations. While some people suffer on-scene amputations, many amputations occur at the hospital later on, after a limb has suffered irreversible damage. Debris, crushed vehicle bodies, and sheer pressure can all lead to horrific amputations or amputation-necessitating damage. Typically, it’s the drivers within smaller vehicles that suffer from amputation injuries in truck-involved auto accidents. However, this is not always the case. By purchasing a vehicle that’s built to sustain body damage without crushing, you can protect yourself more effectively from traumatic amputation injuries. That being said, if you find yourself in a large-scale, truck-involved auto accident, these conditions may be hard to prevent (even with a hyper-safe vehicle body).
Stay Safe on the Road in 2022
By practicing safe driving practices, and always giving trucks the space and respect they require, you can help keep the roadways safer in 2022. No one wants to believe that they could end up in a truck-involved auto accident, but the harsh reality is that auto accident-related deaths and injuries remain a major hazard to every driver (even in 2022). For this reason, it’s that much more important that you constantly stay vigilant when you’re behind the wheel, and that you never drive under dangerous conditions.
