Common Car Crash Injuries & First Aid

Common Car Crash Injuries: Injuries in road accidents are very diverse. It is necessary to know their types, as well as what first aid should be provided to the victim. After all, often after an accident, minutes count, the ambulance does not always have time to arrive, and a person’s life is at stake. This is especially true for car accidents that occur on highways outside the city, where most drivers rush at high speed. The higher it is, the more severe and complex the nature of the injuries. In addition, it usually takes longer to wait for an ambulance outside the city.

What are Car Crash Injuries?

Injuries in road traffic accidents largely depend on how the road accident itself was. They can be divided into several main varieties.

Vehicle overturning.
Collision of two vehicles with each other.
Hitting a pedestrian, cyclist or some kind of animal.
Collision of a moving vehicle with a stationary one.
Falling a car from a height.
Vehicle hitting a static obstacle.

These are the main types of accidents that occur on the roads.

Help in Case of Crash

It should be noted that based on the listed types of road traffic accidents, it is possible to identify the most common causes that lead to injuries in road accidents. This is a collision, compression, impact, penetration of foreign objects into the human body, for example, fragments.

It is worth noting that not only the car itself, but also roadside structures, some foreign elements can cause injury to the victim.

For example, there is a well-known case when a passenger received a terrible injury in an accident by simply sticking his hand out the window at a speed of 120 kilometers per hour. The road sign, which was located close to the canvas, actually tore off the victim’s arm when she ran into the sign at high speed.

If the accident was the result of a collision between two vehicles, then the most severe damage can be obtained as a result of hitting the steering wheel, door or windshield.

Most Dangerous Car Crash Injuries

Specialists of the Center for Disaster Medicine, who in their daily practice face a large number of injuries after road accidents, identify the most common causes of death. In 52% of cases, death as a result of an accident occurs due to deformation of the car body. Another 40% of deaths occur after a person hits the interior of the cabin. Traumatic brain injury after an accident often leads to death.

The nature and severity of injuries (other than the speed of the vehicle itself) is influenced by the shape of the collision. It can be frontal (perhaps the most dangerous), lateral, tangential. Also important is the weight and brand of the car, the presence of airbags in the cabin, the use of belts.

According to statistical studies, when using seat belts, even in severe traffic accidents in frontal collisions, fatal injuries are three times less. 46% of road accident participants who do not use seat belts are injured. Of these, 3% die. Among those who buckle up, only 19% are injured, and the mortality rate is about 1%.

Common Car Crash Injuries

The most common and numerous injuries sustained in road accidents are:

Neck wounds.
Breasts.
heads.
Ribs.
Abdominal cavity.
Spinal injury.
Damage to the organs of the chest.

Most often, a fatal outcome is caused by craniocerebral trauma, a combination of severe shock with profuse bleeding, injuries that can be described as incompatible with life. A detailed description of injuries in road accidents is given in this article.

Death often leads not only to the severity of injuries, but also to the low level of medical training of law enforcement officers and other drivers, who, at times, have no idea how to provide first aid to the victim. In an accident, the time factor plays an important role.

Pedestrian injury

In a broad sense, road traffic injuries are injuries caused by external or internal elements of the vehicle, or injuries resulting from falling out of the vehicle. Based on this, there are several types of damage to the body.

One of the most common injuries after an accident is a blow to any structural element of the vehicle, received by a person in a collision. Falling out of the car, moving the victim, pinching the body between foreign objects and elements of the car, hitting the surface of the car or squeezing the body with parts of the car inside the cabin can also be deadly. Combined injuries become especially severe.

Due to road traffic injuries, in 60% of cases, the victims receive head injuries, and in 10% of the legs, for example, fractures. In third place are hand injuries.

Mortal danger is represented by impacts in an accident on the windshield, the dashboard of a car or the steering column. Such wounds are often fatal. If a person remains alive, significant damage is caused to his health.

It is important to know that the severity of an injury as a result of an accident directly depends on where the victim is located in the passenger compartment of the car. The more various elements next to it that can cause harm, the higher the likelihood of receiving severe damage. For this reason, the front seats are considered the most dangerous in a car.

Types of injury

In this article, we will tell you in detail what injuries a person can get in an accident. The most common are bruises, fractures and other bone injuries.

Much less common are muscle injuries, dislocations of the limbs. Fractures are often accompanied by severe bleeding, and with significant blood loss, blood pressure drops sharply. If emergency first aid is not provided, a person may die from blood loss. Cardiac arrest may occur due to a sharp blow to the chest against a hard surface. Usually, such injuries are dangerous in the absence of seat belts and airbags.

Stab wounds in the region of the pleural cavity are very dangerous, when air, during inhalation, begins to enter the cavity itself through the hole formed in the body. Here are the most common car accident injuries.

Damage to health as a result of an accident can be mild, moderate, severe, or a person dies. It is worth emphasizing that any harm to health leads to long-term consequences. The heavier they are, the longer and more difficult the rehabilitation period. The severity of the injury determines how severe the punishment awaits the driver who is found guilty of a traffic accident.

First Aid for Road Rash

The severity of an injury in an accident can be greatly reduced if the necessary medical assistance is provided in time. If this is delayed, then this can lead to the most sad consequences, even the death of the victim. Let us immediately determine that the first aid that can be provided in case of an accident is divided into mutual assistance and self-help.

Experts identify three stages of assistance in case of an accident, which are capable of both drivers and passengers, and ordinary eyewitnesses. These are emergency actions at the scene of incidents (extraction from the car), calling an ambulance, as well as self-transportation of the victim to the hospital.

To minimize possible harm from injury, it is recommended to perform several mandatory actions:

If possible, eliminate the traumatic effect on the victim, that is, pull him out of the car, pull him away from the burning vehicle, and remove him from the wreckage. However, this must be done if the person is conscious, if he is able to move. If you suspect that the victim has a damaged spine, it is better to leave him in the car until the ambulance arrives and try to ensure immobility.
Until the arrival of doctors, by all means, maintain the vital functions of the human body – breathing, heartbeat. It is desirable that the victim remains conscious.
As a rule, the wounded always experience severe pain. For any injury (with the exception of gaping wounds in the chest and stomach), a person should be given 2 tablets of painkiller to drink, which should be in the first aid kit of drivers near the accident site.
Meet the ambulance in advance so that the doctors do not waste time searching for the accident site.
If the doctors are delayed, then if possible, independently deliver the wounded to a medical facility.
When critical situations arise, when the life and health of the people around you, including your loved ones, are at risk, not everyone is able to adequately assess reality, make informed and correct decisions. Therefore, it will be useful to know the sequence of actions that you must follow when treating a victim at the scene of an accident before the arrival of medical professionals.

Stop the Bleeding

Determine if the victim is breathing. If there is no breathing, start artificial respiration until the first signs of life appear or the resuscitation vehicle arrives.
Determine if the injured person in the accident has a pulse. In case of his absence, start an indirect heart massage.
In case of fractures, apply a splint on your own (at least fix the limb with improvised means).
Treat wounds and apply a bandage.
During urgent measures, try not to cause additional suffering to the wounded.

Conclusion

Don’t forget that any road user should have the skills to provide the very first aid. A person’s life may depend on it. Often, the ambulance team does not have time to promptly arrive at the scene: in the city due to traffic jams, and on the highway due to the fact that accidents often happen far from populated areas. But it is the assistance provided to the victim in the first 60 minutes after being injured that is considered the most effective.

Your inept and unskilled actions can lead to the fact that you will only aggravate the situation, even if you try to help. Therefore, knowledge about providing first aid to victims will never be superfluous.