FACTS ABOUT WHIPLASH INJURIES AND VEHICLE DAMAGE
THAT INSURANCE COMPANIES DO NOT WANT YOU TO KNOW
A common misconception people have is that the amount of vehicle crash damage due to a collision offers a direct correlation to the degree of occupant injury. Although the insurance companies would like you to believe that vehicle damage should dictate the degree of injuries sustained, this correlation is in fact not true according to all research crash studies performed on human subjects!
Here Are The Facts:
In accident tests performed on volunteers who were rear ended by vehicles traveling less than five miles per hour, 38% of the test subjects incurred pain and other whiplash-type symptoms. Also noted was the fact that few bumpers are damaged on vehicles rear ended at these low speeds. What occurs in low speed collisions is the impact velocity is transferred from several thousand pounds of mass directly to the occupants.
“While the vehicle damage resulting from low speed rear impacts is minimal or nonexistent, claims of neck or back injury often result. The amount of crush a vehicle sustains does not relate to the expected occupant injury. In every human test study performed, what was invariably revealed was the opposite finding, i.e., the more vehicle damage, the less chance the occupant will suffer whiplash type injuries to the spine. If the occupant is decelerated over a greater time/distance due to a large crush/arresting distance, then the likelihood of injury is reduced. This conclusion has been demonstrated by both practical examples and mathematical expression.”
[Brault, Archives of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, 1998, “Clinical Response of Human Subjects to Rear-End Automobile Collisions.”
Watanabe, SAE 1999-01-0635, “Relationships Between Occupant Motion and Seat Characteristics in Low Speed Rear Impacts.”
Szabo, SAE 1996, 962432, “Human Subject Kinematics and Electromyographic Activity During Low End Rear Impacts.”
West, Accident Reconstruction Journal, May/June p22-26, 1993, “Low Speed Rear-End Collision Testing Using Human Subjects.”]
Simply said, when the vehicle bends or crushes, it absorbs much of the impact. In slower speed collisions or collisions involving minimum vehicle damage, the impact velocity sustained is thus transferred to the occupants who absorb the effects of the impact trauma! We see this phenomenon when race car drivers walk away seemingly unscathed by high speed crashes that destroy their cars. Their cars are designed to absorb as much impact energy as possible by falling apart. (All that remains is the survival frame to protect the driver.) To the contrary, most whiplash injured patients are struck by another vehicle traveling less than 25 mph with minimum vehicle damage resulting.
This is confirmed in Foret-Bruno, Maag, Morris and Ono’s research involving over three hundred thousand test studies, which concluded:
“In accidents less than 9.3 mph, 36% resulted in neck injuries; if speeds were greater than 9.3 mph, 20% resulted in neck injuries. Neck whiplashes occurred in 22% of collisions if traveling less than 31 mph; 17% whiplashes occurred if traveling greater than 31 mph. If the seat back broke, there was a 39% whiplash occurrence, whereas there was a 61% whiplash occurrence if the seat did not break. (This is because the broken seats have absorbed the impact velocity and thus decrease the shearing force transferred to the body).
Fifty percent of neck injuries occur at low speed impacts with minimum vehicle damage.”
Charles Carroll, M.D., Paul McAtee, M.D., and Lee Riley, Jr., M.D., in their article, “Objective Findings for Diagnosis of Whiplash,” published in the Journal of Musculoskeletal Medicine, succinctly summarized these findings:
“The amount of damage to the automobile bears little relation to the force applied to the cervical spine of the occupants. The acceleration of the occupant’s head depends on the force imparted, the moment of inertia of the struck vehicle, and the amount of collapse of force dissemination by the crumpling of the vehicle.”
It is unlikely that your insurance company will tell you that “65% of all insurance claims are from injuries sustained in accidents less than 9.32 mph because whiplash injuries are most frequently encountered when only slight vehicle deformation (dents and scrapes) occur. It is the slow to moderate collision which causes maximum hyperextension of the cervical spine.”
[Castro; European Spine Journal; 6:366-375, 1997 “Do Whiplash Injuries Occur in Low Speed Rear Impacts”]
Twenty two percent of whiplash victims report no injury at the scene of the accident. Pain often occurs 12 to 48 hours post collision. Many auto accident victims do not feel the full extent of their injuries until two weeks or more after the accident.
Initial lack of complaint is due to innate defensive factors such as shock, protective bodily defenses, and latent inflammatory/injurious response mechanisms. This phenomenon is similar to athletes who feel pain sometime after an event, not during the game when the impacts occur.
“There is also no relationship between long term prognosis and the severity of damage the car sustained in rear impacts. Furthermore, only rarely do the occupants of the impacting vehicle claim injury.”
THE TRUTH ABOUT RECOVERY TIME
Insurance carriers request that treatment be “reasonable and necessary” to return the patient to their pre-injury status or maximum medical improvement (MMI). The length of time required to reach pre-injury or MMI status will vary from one patient to another. Recovery time is dependent not only on the severity of the injury, but is also greatly affected by many other factors. Two different people involved in seemingly similar accidents with similar vehicle damage, may experience very different degrees of injury and require different treatment and recovery times.
Some Factors that Determine a Person’s Healing Response Include:
• Past medical history of underlying instabilities
• Current health and fitness levels
• Age
• Seating and body position at the time of impact
• Size of the car
• Seat back and head restraint design
• Seat belt usage and quality of protection
• Anticipatory state immediately prior to impact
• Activity requirements in work and daily activities
• Stress Factors
Statistically, women suffer greater injury than males from similar whiplash impacts, because their cervical musculature is usually not as strong and therefore cannot protect their necks as well as males are protected.
Because of the differences in severity of accidents and injuries sustained, different treatment approaches and different healing times are expected for different individuals. It is an unrealistic prognostic expectation to be able to pre-formulate exactly when individuals who have been involved in whiplash injuries will be fully healed. Many people reach full improvement within three to five months. Others require more than a year recovery time.
Insurance companies often cite “quick end” healing statistics and tell every whiplash victim, “Based on the damage to your car and the injuries you claim to have, you should be well within a few weeks.”
They have been known to add further deception by claiming, “If you aren’t fully recovered within five months, you should be referred out to another specialist for further evaluation. If your Chiropractor has seen you this many times, and you’re not better, then s/he’s probably over treating you.”
Doctors – not insurance personnel or “accident reconstructionists” – are trained and authorized to evaluate and diagnose the extent of your injuries, as well as determine your appropriate course of care!
It is insulting and deceptive for anyone to tell a whiplash victim, “Based on the damage to your car, the speed of impact, or the other victims’ lack of injury, ‘you should not be too injured,’ and you ‘should be well’ by some certain time frame.”
They do not know the complexities of your particular injuries, your individual body structure, or your personal life stresses that are affecting your recovery.
Insurance companies know statistically that a fair percentage of auto accident patients will become so frustrated and defeated trying to argue for reimbursements they are entitled to – especially during a time when they are hurting, tired, and upset – that these patients will give up fighting with them and surrender their right to fair care.
The intended direction for your care is to be honest with your progress and provide you with the proper type of treatment, for whatever duration is required that allows you to reach either your pre-injury health status or your maximum improvement.
While we always strive to be cooperative in the fairest way possible,
it is our primary concern and responsibility to support you, our patient, first and foremost!