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Whiplash
Whiplash is the most common injury resulting from an RTA. It is a "soft tissue" injury which usually involves stretching, strain or tearing of muscles and tendons around the spine.
The injury is caused by the sudden jerking of the body when the impact takes place.
The classic case of whiplash occurs when a vehicle is hit in the rear, this throws the vehicle occupant forward against his or her seatbelt, he or she then recoils backwards into the back of his seat. This motion can put a lot of strain on the neck muscles (and can additionally sometimes result in a normally short lived seat belt injury across the chest).
The head of an adult weighs about 8lb so it creates quite a lot of forward momentum when the vehicle is struck.
Whiplash injuries can occur in any one or more of the following parts of the body: the neck, the back and shoulders. It is quite common for the victim to feel unhurt at first but therafter pain and discomfort develops (with the first signs normally occurring within the first 24 hours or so). This delayed onset of pain can cause confusion for a third party who may feel aggrieved that the person he drove into did not complain about any injury or neck pain at the scene of the accident.Sometimes a victim experiences pain in more than one area ie he could have both a sore back and neck. Strains to the muscles in the neck and shoulders can also be associated with headaches, dizziness, ringing in the ears, pins and needles in the arms/hands and a general feeling of fatigue.
Whilst "classic whiplash" is caused by a rear impact, soft tissue injury can equally be caused by a frontal or side impact as these can just as easily cause somebody to be jerked about.
If you are unfortunate enough to suffer a whiplash injury, you should of course seek medical attention. The generally received wisdom is that the best treatment is to take painkillers and keep the effected part of the body moving and mobile. Probably the worst thing that you can do is wear a surgical collar or take bed rest as this is likely to increase the stiffness.
In more protracted cases, physiotherapy, osteopathy, chiropractic treatment or steroid injections may be recommended.
There is usually an acute period when the injuries are constant and at their worst. During this acute phase, the victim might take some time off work and refrain from sporting activity and other exertion, but usually after a few weeks things begin to improve and the symptoms often become intermittent and less intense. During this later phase, many victims will gradually get back to their pre-accident level of activity although it may take several months or more to make a complete recovery.
Statistically the outlook is excellent, about 75 percent of victims make a good recovery after several months. Typically we find whiplash injuries often last 6 to 18 months. However there is a small but nevertheless significant minority of victims who suffer some degree of long-term or even permanent injury.
Many experts do take the view that the end period of recovery is at about two years after the accident, so if there is still some pain and discomfort at the second anniversary, then it may well be that the symptoms could continue long-term. In this sort of case the victim may become depressed about his or her injuries, and in turn the depression can sometimes magnify the physical injury. There is then a danger of a chronic pain syndrome emerging which may require specialist and expert treatment from a pain management consultant. Fortunately however this applies in only a small percentage of individuals.
In general terms it can be said that children and young fit men often suffer the least injury and make the quickest recovery. Conversely the elderly, women and people who have been involved in previous accidents or have had pre-existing problems with their spine, tend to be susceptible to more severe and protracted injury. Which is not to say that young people do not suffer whiplash, they certainly do!
The received wisdom amongst medical experts is that a purely soft tissue injury cannot cause osteoarthritis but if before the accident there were arthritic changes taking place in your spine (even if you were not actually aware of them), a soft tissue injury can accelerate and aggravate natural degenerative changes.
Occasionally an accident can cause not just soft tissue injuries but also physical damage (or even fractures) to the vertebrae of the spine or discs. This can cause nerves to become trapped, which in turn can cause referred pain in different parts of the body. This is more likely to happen if the victim already had underlying problems in the spine so that it was weak and vulnerable to traumatic injury. One example of this sort condition is where the accident causes sciatica (trapped nerve in a bulging/ruptured disc) which can be associated with very considerable pain running down the leg. An MRI, CT or X-Ray may then be necessary to get a clearer picture of what is going on. In serious cases the patient may be recommended to undergo manipulation or undertake special exercises.
FAQs
(1) How bad does an impact have to be to cause a whiplash injury?
Answer
This is a topic of some controversy at the moment. Certain insurers argue that it is impossible or unlikely that somebody would sustain an injury if the closing speed was anything less than 5-8 mph. This sort of defence tends to be raised where there is no or only negligible accident damage to the two vehicles. Conversely however if the impact occurred at a closing speed in excess of 5-8 mph it is generally recognised that this is enough to cause an injury to the occupants of the vehicle.
(2) Can a whiplash injury be caused purely be emergency braking from motorway speeds if there is no actual crash?
Answer
Not an easy case to run with! The third party insurers will probably argue that to cause a neck injury, the head must sustain "peak acceleration> 10g and deceleration of 0.75g", it is argued that these sorts of forces are not released where there is forced braking but no actual impact
Links
These link opens in a new window, close the window to return to MyAccident.co.uk
For more info about whiplash try: Whiplash101.com or its excellent companion site of the Spinal Injury Foundation, also see the Spinal Injury Foundation's Treatment Matrix.
For a simple guide to spinal anatomy visit www.backrack.co.uk
Seatbelts
If you suffer a whiplash injury and you were not wearing a seat belt, the third party insurers may argue that your compensation should "automatically" be reduced, perhaps by about 25%+.
They will say that had you been wearing a seat belt, then your injuries would have been less severe.
It is very important that your solicitor should not just agree to this as an "automatic" discount.
Seatbelts were actually invented to reduce impact injuries ie they stop you hitting the steering wheel, windscreen or another person in the car. Obviously in a serious crash, a seat belt can save your life.
However a seat belt is not designed to reduce soft tissue injures. When seat belts became compulsory whiplash actually increased!
It certainly makes perfect sense that a seatbelt would make the average neck injury a lot worse (not better) because by restraining the torso in the seat using a seat belt, all the motion of impact is transferred through the vulnerable cervical spine (neck).
At the very least your solicitor should be asking your medical expert whether your not wearing a seat belt made any difference and if it did,then what, why did it?
Most of the Court decisions which insurers rely upon involve really serious injury, often a fatality, where it is quite obvious that had the claimant not been thrown about, his injuries would or might have been considerable less than they were. We would argue that these cases are not very helpful when looking at a soft tissue whiplash injury.
To download our fascinating review of seatbelt case law (PDF format). *CLICK*
[or*CLICK HERE* for our brand new HTML version]
