Getting involved in a serious crash can result in equally serious injuries. Though most people typically think of things like spine or brain damage, it can include more gruesome things like impalement, loss of limbs or crush injuries.
Crush injuries often get very little press despite their severity. What exactly are these injuries and what impacts do they have?
What are crush injuries?
Up To Date discusses crush injuries and how they affect victims. A crush injury occurs if any part of the body gets caught between two objects, usually with a lot of force or weight applied.
Common examples can include a construction worker ending up with a foot run over by a heavy piece of machinery, or a worker at a conveyor belt getting their hand caught and crushed within the belt itself.
How do crush injuries happen?
In car accidents, the most common crush injuries usually involve the hands, feet or legs. The legs or feet can end up crushed especially with the driver and front-seat passenger due to the little well space that their legs fit into, under the dashboard. Hands also tend to get crushed between the steering wheel and dashboard.
It is possible for a victim to end up crushed between other parts of the car as well, depending on the speed and strength of the crash and how far it pushed components of the victim’s car in.
It is even possible for a victim to end up pinned between their own car and the road, or their car and the other car, if they end up ejected from their own.
Any of these incidents can result in serious injury that requires immediate medical care. Crush injuries could potentially end a life, after all.
