When a vehicle strikes a pedestrian, the consequences can change or end that person’s life. What should you know about the severe injuries that a pedestrian might experience in a collision?
What injuries might a pedestrian suffer in a crash?
When a vehicle strikes a pedestrian, this collision can lead to a variety of serious injuries. These injuries include:
- Head injuries: Pedestrians often suffer from traumatic brain injuries (TBI), concussions and skull fractures. The car might hit someone’s head directly, or the person’s head might hit the ground because of the impact.
- Fractures: The force from a crash can easily break bones. Common breaks happen in the legs, arms, ribs and pelvis.
- Spinal injuries: When a crash injures the spinal cord, these injuries might cause temporary or permanent paralysis.
- Internal injuries: The impact can cause internal bleeding and damage to organs, which might not be apparent after an accident but may still require emergency intervention.
Healing from these injuries may take months or years if the injured pedestrian can recover at all. In some cases, the pedestrian’s injuries may lead to permanent disability or threaten their life.
Why are these injuries so severe?
The most crucial factor contributing to severe pedestrian injuries is how exposed people are when walking. Unlike vehicle occupants, pedestrians have no barrier to shield them from the impact, leaving them without protection and vulnerable to injuries.
The circumstances surrounding a collision also matter. Vehicles traveling at a high speed are more likely to hit pedestrians and cause more severe injuries. Larger vehicles also increase the risk to pedestrians. In fact, larger vehicles are 45 percent more likely to cause a pedestrian death in a crash compared to smaller vehicles.
All these factors make crashes dangerous or deadly for pedestrians. In fact, pedestrians make up between 16 and 17 percent of traffic deaths, even though only about 10 percent of trips are made on foot.
Severe injuries from pedestrian accidents can cause financial strain for the injured people and their families. Filing a personal injury lawsuit can offer compensation to those harmed by a pedestrian accident and help prevent similar tragedies in the future.