The collision barely left a dent. You exchanged information, took a few photos, and drove away feeling fine. But days later, you’re experiencing symptoms that won’t go away. Low-speed accidents cause serious injuries more often than people realize, and dismissing symptoms as minor can lead to delayed treatment and worse outcomes.
Our friends at Deno Millikan Law Firm, PLLC discuss how the absence of visible damage doesn’t mean the absence of injury. A car accident lawyer can help you understand your rights when injuries from a seemingly minor accident turn out to be more significant than initially apparent.
Why Fender Benders Cause Real Injuries
Your body absorbs force during any collision, regardless of the damage to your vehicle. Modern cars are designed to crumple and absorb impact, which protects you but also means minimal vehicle damage doesn’t indicate minimal force transferred to your body.
Adrenaline masks pain immediately after accidents. Your fight-or-flight response floods your system with hormones that temporarily block pain signals. You might feel completely fine at the scene only to wake up the next morning barely able to move.
Soft tissue injuries don’t show up on initial examinations. Muscles, ligaments, and tendons can be stretched or torn without visible bruising or swelling for hours or days. By the time symptoms appear, you might have convinced yourself the accident wasn’t serious enough to warrant medical attention.
Neck Pain That Develops Or Worsens
Whiplash is the most common injury from rear-end collisions, even at low speeds. Your head snaps forward and backward faster than your muscles can react, straining the soft tissues in your neck. Symptoms often don’t appear until 24 to 48 hours after the accident.
If you notice increasing neck stiffness, reduced range of motion, or pain that radiates into your shoulders or arms, these are signs of potentially serious soft tissue damage. What starts as minor discomfort can develop into chronic pain without proper treatment.
Headaches that begin at the base of your skull and radiate forward often indicate neck injury. These cervicogenic headaches result from damaged neck structures and won’t resolve with typical headache remedies.
Persistent Or Worsening Headaches
Headaches after any accident deserve attention, but certain patterns indicate serious problems. Headaches that worsen over days rather than improving, wake you from sleep, or come with nausea and sensitivity to light might signal traumatic brain injury.
You don’t need to hit your head to sustain a concussion. The rapid acceleration and deceleration of a collision can cause your brain to move inside your skull, potentially causing bruising or bleeding. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, many people don’t realize they have a concussion until symptoms become severe.
Difficulty concentrating, memory problems, or feeling mentally foggy after an accident are neurological symptoms that require immediate medical evaluation. These cognitive changes indicate your brain was affected by the collision.
Back Pain That Appears Later
Your spine consists of bones, discs, ligaments, and muscles that can all be injured in a collision. Back pain that develops days after a minor car accident might indicate disc herniation, ligament damage, or vertebral fractures that weren’t immediately apparent.
Lower back pain accompanied by numbness, tingling, or weakness in your legs suggests nerve involvement. These symptoms can indicate disc problems pressing on spinal nerves and require prompt medical attention to prevent permanent damage.
Pain that shoots down one or both legs, a condition called sciatica, often results from collision forces compressing or irritating the sciatic nerve. This isn’t something that resolves on its own and typically worsens without treatment.
Numbness Or Tingling Anywhere
Numbness, tingling, or “pins and needles” sensations in your arms, hands, legs, or feet indicate nerve damage or compression. These neurological symptoms should never be ignored, as they can signal serious spinal injuries or nerve damage that needs immediate treatment.
Even if the sensation comes and goes or seems minor, nerve symptoms tend to worsen over time without proper medical intervention. Early treatment provides the best chance for complete recovery.
Vision Or Hearing Changes
Blurred vision, double vision, or other visual disturbances after an accident might indicate concussion or more serious brain injury. Your visual system is sensitive to the types of forces generated in collisions, and changes in vision warrant immediate medical evaluation.
Ringing in your ears (tinnitus), hearing loss, or feeling like sounds are muffled can result from head trauma or even the extreme noise of the collision itself. These auditory symptoms sometimes indicate inner ear damage or neurological problems.
Dizziness Or Balance Problems
Feeling dizzy, lightheaded, or having trouble with balance after an accident are red flags for potential brain injury or inner ear damage. These symptoms often accompany concussions but might not appear immediately.
If you feel unsteady on your feet, have trouble walking straight, or experience vertigo (feeling like the room is spinning), seek medical attention promptly. These symptoms rarely resolve without treatment and can indicate serious underlying injuries.
Sleep Disturbances
Trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, or sleeping more than usual after an accident can indicate brain injury. Changes in sleep patterns are common concussion symptoms that many people don’t connect to their collision.
If you’re sleeping significantly more than normal or find yourself unable to stay awake during the day, this excessive fatigue might signal your brain is working to heal from injury.
Mood Or Personality Changes
Increased irritability, anxiety, or depression following an accident sometimes indicates brain injury rather than just emotional response to the trauma. Your family members might notice these changes before you do.
Feeling unusually emotional, crying more easily, or having difficulty controlling your temper can all be symptoms of concussion or other brain trauma. These psychological changes deserve the same attention as physical symptoms.
Abdominal Pain Or Bruising
Internal injuries don’t always cause immediate symptoms. Abdominal pain, tenderness, or bruising that develops after an accident might indicate internal bleeding or organ damage. The seatbelt that saved your life can also cause serious internal injuries that take time to manifest.
Seek emergency care immediately if you experience:
- Severe or worsening abdominal pain
- Dizziness or fainting
- Bruising across your abdomen
- Swelling in your stomach area
- Pain that radiates to your shoulder
These symptoms can indicate life-threatening internal injuries that require emergency treatment.
Don’t Wait To Seek Treatment
Many people avoid seeing a doctor after minor accidents because they don’t want to make a big deal out of nothing or can’t afford medical bills. This delay can have serious consequences for both your health and any potential injury claim.
Medical professionals are trained to identify injuries that aren’t obvious to patients. What seems minor to you might be the early stage of a significant injury that’s easier to treat when caught early.
Delaying medical care also creates problems if you later need to file a claim. Insurance companies argue that injuries aren’t serious if you didn’t seek immediate treatment, even though delayed symptoms are medically recognized and common.
Trust Your Body
Your body knows something is wrong even when you want to believe the accident was too minor to cause real injury. Any symptom that persists, worsens, or concerns you deserves medical evaluation regardless of how minor the collision seemed.
If you’re experiencing any concerning symptoms after what appeared to be a minor collision, don’t wait for them to get worse. Reach out to discuss your situation and learn about your options for getting the medical care and compensation you need.