As staggering as it might sound, statistics show that deaths from semi-truck accidents occur about four times an hour. Surface injuries often happens with these types of collisions: your basic lacerations and bruising. But because of the mass of these oversized loads in Tennessee, the damage tends to go deeper than that.
Truck accidents are detrimental to the body
These massive vehicles are specially designed to be capable of hauling extremely heavy loads to transport large amounts of goods across the country. While essential to the economy, semi-trucks still tend to be one of the major hazards of the road. The mass of a regular passenger vehicle such as a sedan – even a mini-van or SUV – is next to nothing compared to the behemoth that is a modern semi-truck.
That’s particularly the case on highways and interstates, where semi drivers do the vast majority of their traveling. At higher speeds, the size and weight of these vehicles only creates more inertia and poises these trucks to do the most damage and potentially cause severe injuries.
The most common part of the body to suffer injury after a big rig accident are the:
- Neck
- Back
- Head
- Brain
Truck accidents commonly cause broken bones in any one of these areas. You might also experience harm to ribs or torso, which might cause internal bleeding or damage to the organs if it’s intense enough.
You probably experienced some degree of whiplash
Whiplash is almost a given because of how physics operates on your body in that situation. You essentially become a human bullwhip, and that’s a result of your seatbelt holding you back. Seatbelts are obviously meant to protect you – and they do, from the worst kinds of injuries in many scenarios. But it does come with some trade-offs for that safety precaution, and whiplash tends to be one of them.
If you’re unsure whether or not you’ve actually experienced whiplash in the collision, the main symptoms to pay attention to are pain and stiffness around the neck and head. With the help of physical therapy, you’ll have a better chance of making a full recovery.