5 Types of Car Accidents and the Injuries That Often Accompany Them

Red and yellow cars shown in a head-on collision during a crash test for safety evaluation.

If you’re in a car wreck, that might shake you up. You may walk away with no injuries. If so, that’s great. However, a car accident can also seriously injure you in some cases.

Long-term effects of serious injuries from car accidents can impact the rest of your life. If that happens, you must try to press on as best you can. You have little choice in the matter.

If you look at the different kinds of car accidents, you will often see similar injuries that accompany each one. Let’s talk about some of the most common varieties and the injuries that usually result.

 

Fender Benders

If you hit a vehicle from behind, or if another driver strikes your car from behind, that’s a tail-end collision, also sometimes called a fender bender. It’s one of the most common accident types. If you drive for long enough, there’s a pretty high chance that you will either see one or experience one.

Fender benders often happen with drivers not paying attention. A car will stop suddenly in front of them, and the other driver won’t stop in time. If they’re talking on their smartphone or trying to change the radio station at the time, that makes a collision much more likely.

To avoid these collisions, pay attention while driving, and also try not to tailgate the car ahead of you. This combination often prevents fender benders.

As for what injuries occur when this happens, neck injuries stay at the top of the list. That’s because, if you hit a car from behind, the driver and any passengers in the vehicle will experience their head, neck, and torso rocking suddenly back and forth.

This often causes whiplash. It’s what occurs when the neck jerks back and forth unexpectedly. It’s seldom very serious, unless a car hits another one from behind going at a high rate of speed. If you sustain this injury, it might take days or weeks to recover.

 

Sideswipe Collisions

The sideswipe collision happens when one car swipes another on either side of it. This happens most often if you have a driver changing lanes, and they don’t see another car right next to them.

This happens less often these days because many modern cars have blind spot detection alerts. If there’s a vehicle in your blind spot that maybe you didn’t see when it pulled up beside you, an auditory alert or a light will warn you not to change lanes right at that moment.

Usually, sideswipe collisions don’t produce serious injuries. You might see an exception if one driver panics when the other car hits their vehicle.

If they do, they might pull their car into oncoming traffic or into a concrete divider if they’re on the highway at the time. Still, you won’t see many people with serious injuries from this type of collision, except maybe for the occasional bump or bruise.

 

Head-to-Head Accidents

Head-to-head accidents usually happen if a driver made a pretty serious driving mistake. Maybe a driver went the wrong way up a one-way street and hit an oncoming car. That could happen if they are drunk. Maybe they are driving in bad weather or they’re in an unfamiliar part of town and missed a one-way sign.

A head-to-head accident can injure someone severely, or even kill them. If two cars collide head-to-head, that may bring about only minor injuries if they’re not going very fast when they strike each other. If they’re going at a decent rate of speed, though, that makes matters worse.

The drivers and passengers might try to slam on the brakes. If they do, but the cars still collide, then you’re often looking at torso restraint injuries. The seatbelts will activate and jerk the drivers and passengers roughly back and forth.

This can cause internal injuries. If the two cars collide with enough force, then the drivers or passengers might also suffer facial injuries if the momentum jerks them forward and their faces smack into the dashboard or steering wheel.

 

T-Bone Collisions

If a car T-bones another one, that means it runs into the other car somewhere around its midpoint, making a capital letter T with the two vehicles. This might happen if a driver tries to run a red light.

They might do this if they’re reckless or drunk. If a car hits another and makes that upper letter T, that can easily kill someone.

It happens because the car that strikes the other one hits the vehicle around its midpoint, and that’s where either the other driver or a front-seat passenger sits. Who absorbs the impact depends on whether the other car hits the first one from the left or right-hand side.

If someone dies in a car wreck, often, it’s a T-bone collision that does the damage. If one vehicle hits another and causes that capital letter T, you might also see broken bones, bruises, lacerations, and all manner of other injuries.

 

Rollover Accidents

If someone dies in a car wreck, but it’s not from a T-bone collision, it’s likely from a rollover accident. With this crash type, one car hits another, or sometimes a rollover happens with only one vehicle involved.

If a vehicle rolls over, that probably means another car or truck hit is very hard and it rolled down an embankment. A driver might also lose control of their vehicle and hit a highway barrier, causing a rollover.

If you see this kind of accident, it’s usually on the highway. That’s because these crashes often happen with cars going at higher rates of speed.

Much like T-bone collisions, rollover accidents can cause concussions, broken bones, bumps, bruises, lacerations, or just about any other kind of injury you might imagine. Frankly, if your car rolls over, or it rolls over multiple times, you should feel lucky if you can walk away at all. With rollover accidents, excessive speed almost always plays a part.

 

Picture of Author: Amanda Jones
Author: Amanda Jones

Amanda Jones specializes in content marketing. She holds a Master's degree in Marketing Management from the University of Florida and a Content Manager Professional Certificate from the University of Miami.

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