Crashing with a semi truck and living is a miracle. That is because these trucks weigh five to fifteen times the average weight of most passenger vehicles. Ninety-eight percent of all accidents involving a truck result in a fatality. However, surviving an accident like this does not mean you come away unscathed. In fact, if you can exit your car and walk away with minimal injury, you must be a superhero.
Since the likelihood of walking away from your vehicle in a truck accident are next to zero, you need to look at your injuries, both seen and unseen. There are a number of bodily conditions and overall health conditions you need to check for because any of them can be included in your semi truck accident lawsuit. Be sure to see doctors and specialists after an accident to check for all of the following.
Soft Tissue Damage in the Neck, Back, Shoulders, and Arms
Whiplash, even with the presence of an air bag, is still a real thing. Your neck, head, and shoulders are still catapulted forward while the air bag is in the middle of deploying from your steering column. Additionally, your arms end up badly bruised from the force of the air bag, leaving you with extensive pain for several days afterward. A trip to the emergency room after the accident will help document the numerous soft tissue injuries as well as the bruises.
Nerve Damage
Nerve damage usually begins several days after the swelling in your bodily injuries has calmed down. You can tell that you have nerve damage when you have constant burning or tingling sensations all over or just in the injured parts of your body. Nerve damage can last a lifetime, and there are only so many tests that can confirm that your nerves are "broken. So, it is important to have these tests completed as soon as possible. The test results will tell you if you are going to suffer from the effects of nerve damage the rest of your life, in which case, you can include treatment costs for this in your lawsuit.
Broken Bones
Bones most often broken in an accident with a semi truck are arm bones, clavicles, ribs, leg bones, and sadly, fractures in your spinal vertebrae. Only X-rays can confirm the breaks in the bones in your spine, thus you need to document all breaks found.
The last thing you want is to skip an X-ray of your back only to discover that the breaks in your back are potentially paralyzing and you could have stopped it and treated it earlier. Open breaks (the ones that have bones jutting through wounds in the skin) need to be x-rayed too so that your surgeon knows how to put the bones back inside you. Just because something does not hurt right after the accident does not mean it should be ignored during the examination post-accident.
Severed Body Parts
Severed body parts are not uncommon with these kinds of accidents. When a truck hits you full-on from the driver's side of your vehicle, the crushing weight and speed can rip off fingers, hands, arms, and sometimes even legs. If you have a body part that is hanging on by just a thread of flesh when the ambulance arrives, it is highly likely that the surgeon will amputate to save your life. A loss of a limb in a truck accident is a huge deal, as it completely alters the course of your life and your ability to do most of the things you normally do.
Surviving a truck accident is a big deal. If you need further legal assistance, contact a local semi truck crash attorney.