In New York, traffic violence is tragically common, resulting in a fatality every 34 hours in 2024. Each week, an average of 17 pedestrians lose limbs, organs, or suffer other life-changing serious injuries due to traffic crashes, devastating victims and their families on both an emotional and financial level. In total, traffic accidents killed nearly 200 people in New York and seriously injured 2,338 others in the first nine months of 2024. Below are some of the most common car accident injuries that victims suffer after traffic crashes in New York. If you were injured in a car accident, our team of New York car accident lawyers at Lever & Ecker can help explain your rights.
Major Car Accident Injuries in New York
Major car accident injuries like traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, back injuries, and amputations are life-altering and often extremely costly. However, New York law typically allows victims to sue for compensation when their injuries are severe.
Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI)
Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBIs) are a type of head injury that often results from vehicle crashes when your head hits the steering wheel or window, or when whiplash occurs. These injuries may not be immediately apparent, so after an accident, it is important to watch out for even seemingly minor problems with memory, brain function, and bodily functions that may indicate a TBI. While mild TBIs like concussions often resolve within a few weeks, severe TBIs can involve years of rehabilitation and lifelong problems with cognitive functioning.
Spinal Cord Injuries
The force of a vehicle collision can fracture vertebrae or damage the discs that cushion your spine, causing chronic pain, weakness, or paralysis. Motor vehicle accidents cause nearly half of all spinal cord injuries, and there is typically no cure. Spinal cord injuries are likely to result in surgeries, physical rehabilitation, and/or mobility equipment for the rest of the victim’s life. Symptoms often include sudden, severe back pain or pressure, weakness, paralysis, numbness, tingling in limbs, loss of bladder control, balance issues, and breathing problems.
Back Injuries
Car accidents can cause a variety of back injuries at differing levels of severity, with the most serious cases causing permanent disability. Back injuries in car crashes occur from the immense force of impact that causes sudden, violent body movements, and can include strains, sprains, slipped, herniated or ruptured discs, pinched nerves, and nerve damage.
Limb Loss and Amputation
The force of a car accident can remove a limb entirely or cause such substantial damage that the limb needs to be fully or partially removed. This may lead to long-term rehabilitation, prosthetics, and other assistive devices, significantly limiting a victim’s daily activities. The loss of a limb is considered a serious injury under New York law.
Moderate Car Accident Injuries
Moderate car accident injuries can still have a lifelong impact, while they may be less likely to result in fatality or permanent disability than major injuries. Some of these injuries, such as broken bones and disfigurement, are considered serious under state law.
Fractures and Broken Bones
Breaks and fractures in bones resulting from collisions may not always be easily detectable at the time of the accident, though symptoms like pain, swelling, bruising, tenderness, numbness, and loss of mobility may indicate a more serious underlying injury. Arms and legs can be fractured when thrown against the interior of a car, and chest injuries like broken ribs can occur when seat belts restrain passengers to prevent more serious injuries.
Burns
In a car crash, hot engine parts, spraying liquids, or vehicles bursting into flames can cause life-threatening burns over large parts of the body. Burn healing time varies significantly depending on the depth of the burn, with superficial first-degree burns typically healing in just a few days, while deep third-degree burns can take months, often requiring surgeries, skin grafts, and extensive care.
Internal Injuries
Internal bleeding and injuries can happen with a blunt force that does not penetrate the skin but injures the muscles, bones, organs, and other tissues underneath it. Blunt force from a steering wheel, dashboard, or seat belt can fracture ribs, bruise your lungs, or damage other vital organs. This type of injury may not be immediately apparent after a crash, so it is important to seek medical treatment as soon as possible.
Disfiguring Facial Injuries and Scars
Facial injuries and burns can cause scars that may require reconstructive surgery. Some scars may contract as they heal, limiting movement or developing into a keloid, which may require additional medical treatment. Significant disfigurement does qualify as a serious injury under NY law.
Crush Injuries
Crush injuries in car crashes are severe, caused by intense pressure that damages muscles, bones, nerves, and tissues, leading to extreme pain, swelling, nerve damage, and potentially life-threatening complications. The spinal cord may be bruised or crushed, causing severe back pain and potentially paralysis.
Minor but Impactful Car Accident Injuries
Minor injuries are the most common in New York car accidents, especially when fewer vehicles are involved and the vehicles are traveling at lower speeds. While these may not be considered serious injuries under New York law, it is still important to take every injury seriously to prevent future complications.
Neck Injuries and Whiplash
Whiplash is one of the most common types of injuries from car accidents, resulting from a rapid forward and backward movement of the neck. This is particularly common in rear-end collisions. While not visible, whiplash or other trauma can take months to heal or lead to a life of pain. Whiplash can injure the muscles, tendons, cartilage, and other soft tissues in the neck, resulting in neck pain and stiffness, reduced range of motion, headaches, tingling, numbness, dizziness, and other symptoms.
Soft Tissue Injuries
Soft tissue injuries from the force of impact in car crashes cause damage to muscles, tendons, ligaments, and nerves, commonly including whiplash, sprains, strains, and bruises. Symptoms like pain, swelling, stiffness, bruising, and limited movement may not appear immediately, sometimes surfacing hours or days later.
Lacerations, Road Rash, and Bruises
While bruises are not usually serious and often heal within a few weeks, they can be a sign of internal bleeding, a hematoma, or a contusion. Pay attention to bruises on the head or those accompanied by other symptoms, such as numbness, swelling, or worsening over time, as they can signal underlying trauma. Additionally, shattered glass and metal can cause deep cuts or lacerations.
Joint & Limb-Specific Injuries
Injuries that are specific to certain joints or limbs in the body can vary in severity and may or may not be classified as a serious injury under state law, depending on how much the injury affects you and how much treatment it requires.
Knee Injuries
Knee injuries from car accidents, often from dashboard impact, are common and serious, causing ligament tears, meniscus tears, fractures, dislocations, and sprains. These injuries can cause pain, swelling, instability, or popping sounds.
Shoulder Injuries
Shoulder injuries from car accidents are common, ranging from strains and impingement to rotator cuff tears, labral tears, fractures, dislocations, and even nerve damage. Symptoms may include pain, stiffness, swelling, bruising, weakness, numbness, tingling, and reduced movement, often worsening with activity.
Wrist and Hand Injuries
If your hands flew up to protect you in reaction to a car crash, the crash could injure them badly. You may need surgery, and you could lose a great deal of function while your injuries heal.
Foot and Ankle Injuries
Drivers often get leg and foot injuries from car crashes. With their legs stretched forward while driving, bones and tissues in the legs, feet, and ankles can take the brunt of a forward collision. The foot, like the hand, is full of small bones that can break or knock out of place easily.
Psychological Injuries
In particularly dangerous car crashes, some victims will suffer psychological injuries like Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) that can seriously inhibit their ability to function.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can result from a shock to the system, like a car crash. Visions may haunt you, or you may see flashes of your accident whenever you try to get into a car. PTSD can limit your ability to function normally, as well as lead to sleeping problems, nightmares, and additional mental illnesses like depression.
How Can You Get Compensation for Your Injuries After a Car Accident in New York?
New York is a no-fault car insurance state, meaning the law requires all car insurance policies to provide personal injury protection coverage to reimburse medical expenses and lost wages to anyone injured in a car crash, regardless of who was at fault. However, this does not always prevent an injured person from pursuing legal action against another driver who is responsible for their injuries.
Under New York law, you can file a case against an at-fault driver if you or a loved one suffered injuries that qualify as “serious,” including:
- Death
- Dismemberment
- Significant disfigurement
- Loss of a fetus
- A fractured bone
- Permanent loss of use of a body organ, member, function, or system
- Permanent consequential limitation of a body organ or member
- A significant limitation of the use of a body function or system, or
- A temporary, medically determined injury or impairment that prevents the victim from performing all of their usual daily activities substantially for at least 90 days during the 180 days immediately following the injury
How Can a Car Accident Lawyer at Lever & Ecker, PLLC Help You?
At Lever & Ecker, our award-winning New York car accident lawyers have more than 70 years of combined experience aiding injured New Yorkers in pursuing the compensation they deserve after being hurt in an accident. Our attorneys will collect evidence like medical records, accident reports, and witness statements to prove the severity of your injuries, ensuring you receive full compensation for your medical bills, lost wages, pain, and suffering. We will also handle dealing with insurance companies, so you will not have to deal with tricky calls or low settlement offers.
With offices in White Plains, the Bronx, and Queens, we serve injured clients throughout New York State, including all five boroughs of New York City, all of Westchester County, and the surrounding counties. We make home and hospital visits, so if you cannot come to us, we will come to you. To learn more about your rights and legal options after being injured in a car crash in New York, contact Lever & Ecker today online or by calling one of our offices.
White Plains (Serving all of Westchester County): (914) 288-9191
Bronx: (718) 933-3632
Queens: (347) 391-6337
