How Long Should You Be Sore After a Car Accident?
May 4, 2022 | Car Accidents
Car accidents have severe potential to be physically devastating for victims. After all, they are traumatic events. It is no wonder you may feel sore. It is natural if you can’t help but think about when the soreness will go away. You can feel tender for days or weeks at a time.
The length depends on a few different factors. Here are some of the elements:
- Degree of trauma
- Your age
- Seat belt use
- Pre-existing conditions
- Treatment plans
The degree of trauma you experience will go a long way in determining how long it will take to feel better. If you are the driver and your vehicle’s front end hits another car, and the airbags deploy, the position and impact of the airbags can injure you. The occupants in the back seat might not suffer the same degree of injury.
Your age plays a crucial role in how long you experience pain following an accident. Sure, you can expect to feel aches and pains, no matter your age, but the older you get, the longer it takes for recovery. For example, a 20-year-old and a 40-year-old in a car accident will have differing experiences. The 20-year-old may only feel sore for a week, while a 40-year-old experiences soreness for four weeks. This is entirely normal.
Additional factors such as seatbelt use, pre-existing conditions, and treatment plans all play roles in the soreness you feel after a car accident and for how long.
Are Occupants Riding with Seat Belts?
You hear it all the time; seat belts can save lives. Their primary purpose is to protect occupants from severe and fatal injuries during a car accident. Everyone knows that seatbelts can still cause or contribute to specific injuries like whiplash, abdominal injuries, organ damage, and respiratory problems.
Not wearing a seatbelt puts you at risk of suffering from severe injuries that will take weeks or months at a time to heal. Broken bones or traumatic brain injuries from flying forward and hitting the steering wheel, windshield, or side window are all typical results.
By wearing a seat belt, you avoid life-threatening injuries. Statistics show that you are 50 percent less likely to experience moderate to critical injuries if you wear a seat belt. That data is according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Additionally, it reports that seat belts also save around 14,955 lives per year. There should be enough reason to buckle up when you are on the road.
Do You Have a Prior Health Condition?
Prior conditions affect recovery rates and range of motion after an accident. Previous health conditions can determine how long you experience soreness after a car, truck, or motorcycle accident. If you already have neck or back pain, a car accident will amplify existing injuries. However, even if your injuries are due to pre-existing conditions, you may still be eligible for financial recovery.
Specific civil laws in select states hold the at-fault party liable for accident damages, regardless of whether the victim has prior injuries or illnesses. For example, an eggshell skull rule exists as a legal doctrine that mentions a defendant is legally responsible for unforeseeable and uncommon reactions to the defendant’s wrongdoings.
If you are in good health and have no pre-existing health conditions, you can expect to recover much quicker. It is best if you were not sore for too long.
How Can I Accelerate My Recovery?
Don’t put up with soreness after a car accident. You can begin treatment right away that helps manage your pain while your body heals. Visit a doctor, medical professional, or hospital as soon as possible. A doctor can help you get back to your everyday, healthy life fast.
The medical staff treats all kinds of victims and patients of car accidents. They see it all daily. There is no need to be fearful or avoid their help. You will be thankful once you seek the medical assistance you deserve.
The typical car accident injuries range from multiple bone fractures to third-degree burns. If you suffer from injuries due to a car accident, your physician can estimate how long you experience physical pain based on your diagnosis and prognosis. If you never go to the hospital or believe that your injuries are minor, in reality, you may not know how long to expect residual soreness to last. The answer to this question depends on many factors.
How Serious Are the Injuries?
The first question that needs answering is whether or not your injuries are severe. There are certain types of car accidents, like a rear-end collision that doesn’t cause any property damage on the one hand. On the other though, it can lead to physical injuries like whiplash.
Whiplash is an injury to the muscles or tendons in the neck from the vehicle’s rapid back and forth motion. While minor whiplash does not pose as a severe injury, it can still create chronic pain and some level of disability for weeks or months after the accident.
As a general rule, the more serious your injuries, the longer you will experience pain and suffering. Typically, six weeks is the average time for recovery following a car accident. However, many victims begin to feel better and back to normal earlier than this.
Depending on the victim and their injuries, others can experience pain and suffering for a lifetime. Again, recovery relies on individual recovery time and the severity of injuries. The injuries that can lead to extended recovery time include neck and back injuries, spinal cord injuries, and brain injuries. Sometimes burns can take a while to heal. They often leave behind residual pain too.
At What Speed Was the Car Traveling?
Car accidents in high-speed vehicles can cause more severe injuries than low-speed ones. With two-vehicle collisions, the gravitational force on the cars is the same for the occupants inside too. Say you are traveling at 70 miles per hour. The total speed at which your collisions occur is 130 miles per hour. The higher your accident rate, the higher your chances of sustaining injuries that take longer to heal.
What Are the Legal Options for Pain and Suffering?
As mentioned above, car accidents are notorious for persistent conditions after completing medication. Often, victims experience a phobia of cars, sink into depression or have constant headaches. These are the reasons why people claim pain and suffering. A car accident attorney can ensure you are on the right path to receive pain and suffering compensation. A car accident attorney will explain everything you need to know about pain and suffering damages in further detail.
What Is Pain and Suffering?
Anything like pain and discomfort you endure and the effects of the injuries that continue into your future are pain and suffering. Pain and suffering are either physical or mental. The former, physical, represents actual physical injuries.
Mental pain and suffering are a result of physical injuries. This can look like anger, anxiety, emotional distress, and shock. It is any negative emotion you experience due to the physical pain you suffer after an accident.
Mental severe pain and suffering can take the shape of post-traumatic stress. Like physical pain, mental pain and suffering are not just the effects you feel but also extend to the suffering you may experience in the future.
Is There Anything to Consider Before Seeking Damages for Pain and Suffering?
What usually happens with auto accidents is that they end with out-of-court settlements. You want to check the state laws and the insurance company guidelines that can ultimately affect your pain and suffering damages claim. Take caution and look for limitations in damage caps, though. Also, be careful of the no-fault system.
There are select states that have damage caps on pain and suffering damages. These caps end up limiting the number of damage awards you receive. Oklahoma, for example, has a cap of $350,000 for pain and suffering compensation.
States that follow the no-fault system can allow you to recover damages under specific circumstance limits. Under these states, your injuries have to meet particular standards to get compensation for pain and suffering.
How Do You Calculate Pain and Suffering?
This is the insurance adjuster’s duty to maintain. They use one of two methods. The first involves the multiplier method, and the other is the per diem method. Furthermore, the insurance adjuster multiplies your actual damages, medical expenses, and lost income by a certain number.
Your attorney or insurance adjuster multiplies the actual damages with a multiplier. The multiplier varies depending on the severity of your injuries, the duration of your recovery, and any frustrating situations. There is a software program that generates the multiplier.
If you are experiencing a broken femur, you will need to go through numerous surgeries before recovering. The pain and suffering are more significant than if you sustain minor injuries from an accident. The multiplier with the severe accident may sit somewhere between three and four, while for the little accident, the multiplier can be one or two.
With the per diem method, the insurance adjuster or attorney assigns a daily rate or fixed amount of money to every day you continue to suffer. For instance, if your insurance adjuster uses a daily value of $200, they will multiply that value over a certain period, like two or three months. One factor that contributes to determining the daily rate is the income you might receive on any given day should you not be recovering.
Calculating and claiming pain and suffering damages in an injury case is challenging. The insurance company may give you a hard time before they agree to accept a settlement. For the best service and legal guidance, call a car accident attorney.
Injured in a Crash? Call a Car Accident Attorney Today
Don’t sit on injuries after a car accident. You can put yourself and your health in jeopardy by doing so. Injuries are not always visible right away. They can take a few days to appear or may not even. That doesn’t mean you are in the clear. The human body has a lot inside it, and you can never be sure what is happening within it.
Organs can shift, bones can break, and the list goes on. That bruise may seem insignificant, but you don’t know what is going on. Visit a doctor and put all your concerns and questions to bed. The sooner you seek help, the better your chances of returning to everyday life or the life you wish to get back to before the accident.
Another piece of advice is to do your research. Don’t just select the first attorney that you find. Read about their success rate, what areas they focus their practice on, client testimonials, and more. Visiting a law firm’s website is the best way to address these areas. It is recommended that you also give them a call. You can speak directly with an attorney who can answer all your questions and let you know if you qualify for pain and suffering compensation.
There are a lot of laws for one to consider, and it is a challenging field to take on by yourself. Having the right attorney for pain and suffering will benefit you in the long run. Let them speak on your behalf, fight for your rights and protect you from insurance adjusters or companies taking advantage of you. Trust that your attorney knows what they are doing and has your best interest at heart. They take their jobs seriously and are sure to guide you along the way.
It holds great value if you seek proper representation in legal terms. You can go from pain and suffering from medical and other expenses piling up to receiving compensation. You are only hindering yourself by avoiding an attorney’s help.
You will also find that many law firms operate on a contingency basis. If you are not sure what they mean, all you have to know is that you don’t owe the attorney anything until they successfully win your case.