CAR DAMAGE vs. PEOPLE DAMAGE: THERE IS NO COMPARISON

Some many times insurance companies and lobbyists sow ideas that injured persons are trying to win the lottery. When is the last time that you saw a car insurance TV commercial show the people in the vehicle or outside the vehicle hurt or in pain? How many of those TV commercials showing a car collision with persons getting out smiling and walking around looking at their cars?  How many of those commercials show a hard impact with visible damage to steel cars and no damage to the soft tissues of the people inside the vehicle?

Considering the constant “how can someone be injured?” programming, an injured person has an uphill battle trying to help people understand that the extent of visible damage to hard cars does not equal the amount of invisible damage to a human body. Although some collisions do not cause injury to vehicle occupants, many collisions with little damage to hard vehicles—and sometimes no visible damage to vehicles—cause injury to people of all ages, sizes, shapes, and physical fitness.

After conducting a review of Medline articles, articles on human low-speed rear-end tests, lab tests on human cadavers, automotive engineering articles, and peer reviewed articles on whiplash, an article concluded that “there is a lack of relationship between occupant injury, vehicle speed, and/or damage. There does not seem to be an absolute speed or amount of damage a vehicle sustains for a person to experience injury. Crash tests indicate that a change of vehicle velocity of 2.5mph may produce occupant symptoms while damage to the vehicle may not occur until 8.7mph.”  J. Manipulative Physiol Ther. 1998 Nov-Dec.

Are you fighting a David versus Goliath battle with an automobile insurance company? Call the personal injury lawyers at Slaughter & Lupton Law for a free initial consultation. Don’t wait too long—call today!