Almost any injury can happen in a car accident, but common types of injuries include:
- Whiplash – Accident victims often suffer from whiplash, which affects the neck, but may also affect the spine.
- Back and neck injuries – These tend to be very serious injuries, resulting in long-term or permanent disability.
- Head injuries – The victim’s head may strike the steering wheel or windows, resulting in facial cuts and bruises, but also in devastating traumatic brain injuries. Traumatic head and brain injuries often occur when the accident victim suffers a strong blow to the head that disrupts the brain’s ‘internal hardware.’ When the brain’s neurons and axons get severed due to a traumatic brain or head injury, the accident victim might suffer serious memory deficits and other short and long-term losses. In the worst-case scenario, a traumatic brain injury suffered in a car crash could cause the accident victim to experience a permanent comatose state or suffer death.
- Internal injuries – These injuries may also go undetected at first, but they can be serious and difficult to treat.
- Chest injuries – The impact may damage the victim’s ribs or internal organs.
- Lacerations and burns – Cuts and bruises are painful but may also cause disfiguring scars that cause the accident victim to experience pain, shame, and embarrassment.
- Broken bones – Broken bones are common car accident injuries and may require surgery or other long-term treatment. Even after the broken bone gets repaired, the accident victim might need to undergo physical/occupational therapy or other intensive treatment to get back to full functioning. In addition, the accident victim may have to undergo another surgery for the doctor to remove hardware, such as bolts or clamps, that they inserted in the accident victim’s body during the initial surgery.
- Wrongful death – The family or heirs of someone killed in an accident might be eligible for compensation through a wrongful death lawsuit. In a wrongful death claim or lawsuit, the decedent’s surviving loved ones—and in some instances, the personal representative of the decedent’s estate—complete the filing. As part of a wrongful death claim, the decedent’s surviving loved ones might recover compensation for burial and funeral expenses, loss of the loved one’s companionship and advice, and loss of the loved one’s future income, assuming that surviving family members relied on that income.
The elements of a wrongful death claim are essentially the same as those in a regular Atlantic City car accident claim. Specifically, in a wrongful death car accident claim, the claimant must demonstrate that another driver violated the prevailing duty of care (such as by violating a traffic law or regulation), resulting in the accident that led to the decedent’s untimely death.