Soft tissue injuries in a motor vehicle accident 

What Are Soft-Tissue Injuries?

People who are injured in motor vehicle accidents frequently suffer soft-tissue injuries. These injuries often include strains, sprains, and tears to muscles, tendons, and ligaments, spinal disc bulges and ruptures, and nerve damage. Soft-tissue injuries can have long-lasting debilitating effects and can take months or years to resolve, or even may never fully resolve. While many people think that soft-tissue injuries only occur in accidents that take place over a certain speed, in reality even low-speed impacts can cause soft-tissue injuries.

Even Low-Speed Collisions Can Cause Soft Tissue Injuries

It is not uncommon or unreasonable for vehicle occupants to suffer soft-tissue injuries in low-speed accidents. There have been cases where accident victims have suffered long-lasting soft tissue injuries in accidents involving speeds as low as 2 or 3 miles per hour. One study found that 38 percent of respondents who had soft-tissue injuries were involved in an accident that occurred at around 5 miles per hour. Even at these low speeds, soft tissue injuries include strains and tears of muscles, ligaments, and tendons, and even include some nerve damage. Even a low-speed accident can cause whiplash injuries, which occur when the neck snaps back and forth in an impact. Whiplash injuries often include ligament tears and spinal disc herniations.

Symptoms of Soft Tissue Injuries

Depending on the exact injuries, soft tissue injuries can cause many different kinds of symptoms. These injuries most often cause symptoms such as stiff neck, neck and upper back pain, or tingling sensations through the neck and shoulders. Symptoms, particularly for soft tissue injuries in the upper back, neck, and head include vertigo, nausea, and headaches, particularly if a person suffered a concussion in their accident.

Other symptoms of soft tissue injuries lower in the body include lower back pain and joint pain in the arms and legs. These can be the signs of disc injuries, ligament and tendon strains or tears, or nerve injuries.

Long-Term Effects of Soft Tissue Injuries

Soft tissue injuries often leave victims with substantial and stubborn pain. Even after a person has been told by their doctor that he or she has made a full recovery from a soft tissue injury, he or she may continue to experience pain thereafter. This is usually due to scar tissue, which can irritate or put pressure on nerves — this usually manifests as numbness, tingling, or pain. Other long-term effects of soft tissue injuries include muscle weakness, muscle spasms, degenerative disc disease, or misalignment of the spine.

Proving Damages from Soft Tissue Injuries

Trying to obtain compensation for soft tissue injuries can be a difficult task, especially in motor vehicle accidents that occurred at low speed and/or resulted in minimal damage to the vehicles involved. Many insurance companies and defense lawyers argue that a person claiming soft tissue injuries are fabricating or exaggerating their injuries to try to increase their financial recovery. It is also often hard to obtain objective evidence of soft-tissue injuries, which do not appear on x-rays and are often hard to spot on other scans such as MRIs and CT scans. Instead, accident victims must often rely on thorough examination and documentation by their treating doctors to establish the existence and severity of soft tissue injuries. Finally, many cases involve disputes over whether a claimant’s soft tissue injuries were caused or aggravated by the motor vehicle accident, or were simply a pre-existing condition.

Contact a Clark Personal Injury Lawyer to Discuss Your Motor Vehicle Accident Case in New Jersey

Did you or a loved one sustain serious injuries due to a motor vehicle accident in New Jersey? Don’t let the medical bills pile up while you wait for the negligent party or their insurance company to do the right thing. Right now, you need an aggressive personal injury attorney on your side, fighting to get you the compensation you need, want, and deserve. The skilled attorneys at Team Law represent clients injured because of motor vehicle accidents in Newark, Jersey City, Paterson, New Brunswick, and throughout New Jersey. Call (866) 917-5611 or fill out our online contact form to schedule a free consultation about your case. We have an office conveniently located at 136 Central Ave. Clark, NJ 07066, as well as offices in West New York, Perth Amboy, Edison, Summit, Newark, New Brunswick, Orange, Plainfield, and Jersey City.

The articles on this blog are for informative purposes only and are no substitute for legal advice or an attorney-client relationship. If you are seeking legal advice, please contact our law firm directly.