There are certain kinds of injuries that are more likely in some parts of the country than in others. For instance, Alaska has more than its fair share of plane crashes thanks to all the snow and mountains that exist in America’s 49th state. If you live in Texas, the most disproportionately common injury that’s likely to happen to you will come courtesy of a mosquito bite, since the mosquitoes in Texas are so big that some of them can play high school football. But while Texas has a lot of people, it doesn’t have as many people as California. Let’s take a look at some common injuries in The Golden State.
Car accidents
California has a ton of cars. If you don’t believe it, just visit Los Angeles during rush hour, or really almost anytime of day. There are a lot of people using roads that really weren’t designed for the type of congestion drivers experience today. When you know that, it makes sense that car accidents would rank as the most disproportionately common cause of injury in California.
People aren’t just getting injured on California’s roadways. They’re also dying at a higher rate, according to data from the National Safety Council. The council found there were 3,680 motor vehicle deaths statewide in 2016, an increase of 13 percent from the year before.
Obviously, a dead person can’t sue the driver who killed him or her, but that person’s survivors might have a claim. The type of lawsuit that family members will file is going to be a bit different than the type of lawsuit that an accident survivor will file, though. The husband of a Central Coast woman killed in the car accident should look for a Santa Barbara wrongful death lawyer, but a person who is paralyzed in a car accident should look for a Santa Barbara injury lawyer. There will be lawyers who can take on both kinds of cases, of course, but it’s best not to assume that an injury lawyer can do the exact same things as a wrongful death lawyer, and vice versa.
Types of car accident injuries
If you’re lucky, you’ll walk away from a California car accident with nothing more than a few cuts and bruises. You won’t have a personal injury suit if you aren’t injured, and that’s a good thing. No one should want to talk to a personal injury attorney unless it’s the least bad option.
But if you aren’t lucky, you could end up with all sorts of nasty conditions. We tend to think of concussions as a thing that happens mostly to athletes who are playing a fast-moving sport, and a lot of concussions do happen that way. But it turns out that cars are also moving pretty fast, and when a car stops suddenly, your body is going to get jolted. Your head can hit the steering wheel or dashboard and leave you with a concussion. Once you have a concussion, you’re at risk for something called post-concussion syndrome. This syndrome occurs when symptoms like dizziness, anxiety, and headaches last for weeks or even months instead of clearing up in a few days.
Broken bones are another possibility. Your arm, leg, or other body part can get fractured after slamming against a part of your car, or, in some cases, against the asphalt outside your car. Whiplash is such a common car accident injury that some people think a crash is the only possible cause of it (it’s not).
Emotional injuries are a bit harder to prove, but they can be just as crippling. It’s common for people to fear going back to the roadway where the accident happened. If you were on your way to buy booze when the crash occurred, you might look for a new liquor store rather than risk using that route again. If weeks have passed since the accident and you still feel anxious and tense all the time, it’s worth scheduling a visit with both a therapist and a personal injury lawyer.
