I have some wonderful suggestions on how you and your family can reduce injury if, God forbid, you are involved in a car crash. These car crash injury suggestions come from Dr. Lawrence Nordhoff, Jr., an accident reconstruction expert and the author of various books on vehicle collisions.
- Tighten up and brace yourself-contracted muscles protect bones, ligaments and nerves.
- Face forward with your back and head against the seat and headrest. Hold the steering wheel at the 10-2 o’clock position and do not bend your wrists.
- Keep an eye on the other guy—-you have a better chance of not being injured if you are aware of the oncoming collision.
- Consider buying a heavy car for more protection from car crash injury.
- Sit at least six inches from the steering wheel.
- Set the headrest and seat back so that the back of your head is no more than an inch or two from the middle of the headrest. Then raise the headrest two more inches.
- Never put the shoulder harness behind your back.
- Don’t pump anti-lock brakes just hold them down. They may feel “jerky” but this is natural.
- Use only a new child’s safety seat for your children and install it in the middle of the back seat. Installation is tricky, perhaps someone from the local children’s hospital can assist you.
- If it all possible avoid collisions with oncoming vehicles or fixed objects.
As you will note, many of Dr. Nordhoff’s car crash injury suggestions deal with how to prevent whiplash or “flexion-extension injures” to the neck. Even a modest impact can cause your body (and head) to be thrown forward. Your body is jerked to a stop by the seat belt and shoulder harness, but your head keeps rotating forward and down until your chin hits your chest. It then flies backwards until stopped by the headrest.
Riding “gangsta” with your seat back, reclined at an extreme angle is dangerous. It places your head so far from the headrest as you bend your neck forward to see out the windshield, that if you are rear-ended, your head has a long way to fly (and pick up speed) before it slams into the headrest.
Dr. Nordhoff says the average person will be in an accident every ten years. As you get older and have more accidents resulting from car crash injury; it is even more important to do what you can to minimize the possibility of permanent injury.
I hope you found this information helpful. About every 2 weeks or so I’ll provide additional meaningful articles regarding personal injury issues and related legalities.
Until then, Be Careful Out There!
All My Best- Bill Schneikart Personal Injury Lawyer
