T-bone accident? Look out for these injuries
- T-bone accident? Look out for these injuries
- T-bone accidents: why they’re so dangerous
- Common T-bone car accident injuries
- Why you should never delay medical treatment after a car accident
- Proving fault isn’t always so simple when it comes to side-impact collisions
- A personal injury attorney can support you after your crash
- Don’t wait to contact Zach Herschensohn and his team
Although just about any type of car accident can result in painful and costly consequences, T-bone accidents are particularly likely to cause serious injuries or death, particularly for passengers (and especially children).
But even if you and all your passengers are lucky enough to walk away from a nasty side-impact collision, don’t assume you’re out of the woods yet. What may seem like minor aches and pains at first can gradually develop into much more severe problems in the days and weeks ahead.
In this blog, we’ll take a closer look at T-bone accidents and injuries, and the steps you should take to get the care and compensation you deserve.
So, what makes people involved T-bone accidents especially likely to suffer severe injuries?
First, consider that in a front or rear-end collision, both drivers gain some degree of protection from all the vehicle components (hood, engine, trunk, seats, and more.) physically separating them from each other. That generous crumple zone not only protects the passenger cabin, but also spreads out the impact force and slows down the rate of vehicle deceleration.
By contrast, if you’re getting T-boned, the impact can occur just inches from your seat, with only a flimsy car door separating you from two tons of oncoming steel, plastic, and glass.
There’s also the matter of how T-bone collisions occur in the first place. Quite often, these car accidents occur at intersections, when one driver runs a red light or stop sign, or when a driver pulls forward out of a driveway or side road right in front of oncoming traffic. Speeding, driving under the influence, and distracted driving are particularly likely to be involved, and the consequences can be devastating.
“Very knowledgeable and trustworthy. Zach Herschensohn provided me with excellent service. He kept me well informed and explained complicated issues in a way I could understand. He took the lead and guided me through everything necessary to achieve a successful outcome. Overall, I am very pleased with his service and would highly recommend him to anyone.”
“Very knowledgeable and trustworthy. Zach Herschensohn provided me with excellent service. He kept me well informed and explained complicated issues in a way I could understand. He took the lead and guided me through everything necessary to achieve a successful outcome. Overall, I am very pleased with his service and would highly recommend him to anyone.”
“Very knowledgeable and trustworthy. Zach Herschensohn provided me with excellent service. He kept me well informed and explained complicated issues in a way I could understand. He took the lead and guided me through everything necessary to achieve a successful outcome. Overall, I am very pleased with his service and would highly recommend him to anyone.”
“Very knowledgeable and trustworthy. Zach Herschensohn provided me with excellent service. He kept me well informed and explained complicated issues in a way I could understand. He took the lead and guided me through everything necessary to achieve a successful outcome. Overall, I am very pleased with his service and would highly recommend him to anyone.”
“Very knowledgeable and trustworthy. Zach Herschensohn provided me with excellent service. He kept me well informed and explained complicated issues in a way I could understand. He took the lead and guided me through everything necessary to achieve a successful outcome. Overall, I am very pleased with his service and would highly recommend him to anyone.”
Injuries commonly associated with T-bone collisions include:
- Whiplash and neck injuries. Although whiplash tends to be associated more with rear-impact collisions, getting T-boned can still whip your head painfully back and forth. Quite often, this results in soft-tissue damage to the head, neck, and shoulders, which leads to symptoms like headaches, stiffness, pain when moving your turning your head, numbness, and more.
- Head injuries. After a severe impact, your head might collide with a side window, steering wheel, or other object in the car. That could mean a concussion or other traumatic brain injuries (TBI), intracranial hematoma (bleeding of the brain), or even a skull fracture.
- Spinal injuries. The spine is highly vulnerable in side-impact collisions, and injuries such as herniated discs or broken vertebrae are common. If the spinal cord is damage, paralysis is a possibility.
- Other osteopathic injuries. Broken arms, hip and leg injuries, torn soft tissues—a T-bone accident can lead to severe injuries to bones, muscles, tendons, and ligaments throughout the body.
- Lacerations. T-bone accidents often produce a lot of broken glass, which can cause painful, deep cuts.
If you only learn one thing from reading this blog post, make sure it’s this: always seek medical attention after getting T-boned, or any other kind of motor vehicle accident.
Even if you feel “mostly fine,” even if you pride yourself on being able to “tough it out,” even if you feel embarrassed or nervous about going to doctor for something “so small,” do it anyway.
Why is this so important?
A lot of injuries, including many severe ones, may not be obvious for a few days or even a few weeks after the crash. Spotting the trouble (and getting it treated) as soon as possible can be a huge boost for your recovery, in more ways than one:
- Physical recovery. Catching and treating injuries at the earliest stage, before they have a chance to get worse, is obviously going to be better for your long-term health and comfort.
- Financial recovery. If you go to the doctor right away, it shows the insurance company that you took your injuries seriously, and it generates medical records that can be used to conclusively tie those injuries to the T-bone collision. That kind of hard evidence makes it much tougher for insurance companies to get away with their shenanigans and discredit your claim.
In short: don’t take the risk. Get checked out by a professional. Sure, maybe the injuries really aren’t that bad, and you’ll feel better in a few days. But if they are more serious than you first thought, going to the doctor right away could save you a lot of pain down the road. It could also save your legal case.
You might think it’s beyond obvious that the other driver was responsible for the car accident. Guess what? That doesn’t mean the other insurance company will see it that way. They are going to look for every chance they can to get out of paying you what they owe.
There’s no rule that says one driver or the other is presumed at fault in a T-bone crash; depending on the circumstances, either (or both) could have been negligent and failed to lawfully yield the right of way. And even if you’re absolutely certain it wasn’t your fault, that won’t necessarily stop the other driver from lying about what happened and blaming you anyway.
Furthermore, because Washington is a pure comparative fault state—and because occupants in the other vehicle very likely suffered injuries as well—the other driver’s insurance company is going to fight to pin as much of the blame on you as they possibly can.
RELATED POST: Hurt in an intersection? Here’s how to understand who’s at fault
If you learn only two things from this blog post, the second should be that you should always contact a personal injury attorney as soon as possible after a side-impact collision, whether you think you sustained a serious injury or not.
Among other things, an experienced attorney can help you:
- Make sure you get all the appropriate medical care you need.
- Accurately calculate the value of any personal injury case you may have, including your medical costs, lost wages, pain and suffering damages, and potentially even punitive damage if the other driver was excessively negligent or reckless.
- Thoroughly investigate the accident, including working with crash reconstructionist and other expert witnesses where appropriate, to prove the other party’s negligence.
- Handle your paperwork, negotiate with the insurance claims adjuster on your behalf, and if necessary, fight for you at trial.
If you think there’s even the slightest chance that you would need to seek compensation for injuries sustained in your accident (and if you were in any kind of car accident in which you weren’t at fault, you should), there’s no reason not to call a lawyer for a free consultation.
Attorney Zach Herschensohn fights for T-bone accident victims in the Kent area, and throughout Greater Seattle and Washington State. Our team has extensive experience handling side-impact collision cases and take great pride and pleasure in holding negligent parties accountable and winning our clients the fair compensation they deserve. To schedule your free legal consultation, call our Kent law office at (206) 588-4344 or send us a message online.
The content provided here is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice on any subject.
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