Neck Injuries From Automobile Accidents

Suffering an automobile accident is one of the scariest things which can occur at any given time of any given day to anybody who must drive or ride along in a car. If you suffered a serious neck injury which has resulted in a lower quality of life, or impacted your ability to work or perform other tasks important to you, contact the experienced, Massachusetts-based personal injury attorneys at Altman & Altman LLP today to see if we can help you secure financial compensation.

It is almost a guaranteed, mathematical certainty that you will become involved in an accident – either that is your fault or the fault of someone else – at some point in your life, given how many cars are on the road and how much we rely on cars to navigate in life.

Crashes in cars can range from totally innocuous and result in no injuries to catastrophic accidents which involve permanently-debilitating injuries and even fatalities. Somewhere in the middle of that scale, however, are car accidents which result in neck injuries.

Among the non-fatal injuries which may occur as the result of an automobile collision, injuries to the neck may be among the most painful, long-lasting and potentially debilitating injuries which can occur. People don’t truly realize how much we move our necks, or how painful these motions can become when we have a neck injury, until they experience a neck injury.

The neck connects the rest of the spinal column with the skull, and it experiences some of the broadest range of motion of any part of the spine, responsible for rotation, compression (bending our heads backwards) and extension (leaning our heads forward). It is incredibly easy to strain the neck, sometimes by way of simply overextending the neck too far and “tweaking” it, which can result for a painful day or two of inflammation.

In the instance of a car accident, the forces exerted on the neck are amplified greatly and may result in much more seriously injuries to the neck, including:

• Neck “stingers,” which are characterized by intense, electricity-like pain jolting through the neck area. The pain may last only a short amount of time but can persist for hours or even days;
• Neck sprains, which are small tears in the soft tissues – ligaments and muscles – between the bony columns of spine. These may result in serious, lasting pain and headaches, stiffness in the neck or localized numbness to the arms and hands;
• Neck fractures are among the most serious injuries which can occur during a vehicular accident. A broken neck can be fatal, or cause damage to the spinal cord which may result in partial, temporary or even permanent paralysis.

In many cases, damage from a neck injury can persist for years, or even the remainder of a person’s life. Someone may go from living an active and healthy life to being confined and reliant on pain medication to manage the everyday discomfort which results from certain neck injuries.

In the event that someone else is responsible for the accident which resulted in your neck injury, they may be liable in a claim for damages, which may secure you financial compensation necessary to pay your medical bills and medication expenses, in addition to money you may lose from being unable to work like you did before becoming injured.

If the driver of the other vehicle was under the influence of drugs or alcohol, was driving recklessly or was distracted while behind the wheel, they are certainly liable for the accident and we can hold them accountable to the full extent of the law for their negligent actions which caused your injury.

The personal injury attorneys at Altman & Altman LLP have over 50 years of experience handling personal injury claims which occur as the result of an automobile accident, and we can get started on your case today.

Call us for a free consultation today at 617.492.3000 or toll-free at 800.481.6199. We are available 24/7 and are located in Cambridge, Boston and Salem, Massachusetts.