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Car accidents of any kind frequently result in injuries of all varieties, but one of the scariest is head trauma. Head trauma can result in a wide range of negative outcomes, from death to permanent or temporary impairment, greatly diminishing the quality of life for survivors.
T-bone accidents can be among the most severe types of accidents, and are particularly prone to causing head injuries.
What is a T-Bone Accident?
A T-bone accident is one in which the front of one vehicle collides with the side of another, forming a "T" shape. These types of accidents tend to be more severe for the vehicle whose side is being hit, but both parties are at risk of significant injury, especially since many T-bone accidents take place at high speeds.
Why are T-Bone Accidents Likely to Cause Head Trauma?
While any car accident carries the risk of head trauma, T-bone accidents cause head trauma at a higher rate than the average accident. This is as a result of a combination of several factors, each of which individually increases the chance that a person in a T-bone accident might experience head trauma.
Vehicles Have Minimal Protection on the Side
Modern engineering has made vehicles much safer and more crash-resistant than ever before, but those safety features aren't able to be applied evenly throughout the vehicle. A car is built to withstand an impact to the front or back far better than an impact to the side of the vehicle.
Every vehicle has a series of structures within the front and back called crumple zones. These areas are designed to bend and deform (almost like an accordion) in response to an impact. This slows down the time of impact while dispersing some of the kinetic energy of the crash, sparing both the engine and the interior of the vehicle from the full force of the crash.
For the vehicle receiving the side impact in a T-bone accident, these crumple zones aren't able to mitigate the crash's force. A more powerful impact means a greater chance of serious injury, including head trauma.
Riders Are More Likely to Strike Their Heads
A head-rest is behind a driver or passenger's head, and it's designed to cushion and support the head in the event of an impact. Usually, a relatively large amount of empty space is in front of a driver or passenger, and frequently modern cars will deploy airbags, especially in the front seats.
But side airbags are less common, and usually a window and the side of the vehicle are a foot or less away from the driver or passenger's body. In a T-bone accident, the people in the vehicle getting hit from the side are likely to be thrown into a hard, unforgiving window or side of the vehicle if the impact of the crash jerks them in that direction.
Even worse, the impact of a side crash often radically distorts the body of the car, and if the impact is on that person's side, the structure of the vehicle can shove metal or glass toward that person's head. The combination of those two factors makes it likely that anyone being struck in the side of the vehicle at high speeds will experience a blow to the head.
The Head Doesn't Need to Take a Direct Strike to Receive Head Trauma
One of the most common misconceptions about head trauma is that it only occurs when the head makes contact with a foreign body or object. However, many people experience head trauma despite their head never striking any outside object.
Fundamentally, many head injuries are brain injuries, and the brain is protected by the skull. The brain floats in cerebrospinal fluid within the skull, and that fluid stabilizes the brain and cushions it when moving.
But when the head or body moves violently or abruptly, the brain can strike the inside of the skull, and a severe impact between the brain and skull can cause significant injury. In a direct impact between the head and an object like a car window or the side of a vehicle, the damage to the brain comes through the impact between the skull and brain, not the object directly striking the brain.
However, it's also possible for the brain to impact the skull simply due to the force of the head's movement, even though nothing impacts the head. Oftentimes, this force is called "whiplash" when discussing car accidents, and it can lead to concussions and other forms of brain trauma.
T-bone accidents produce whiplash injuries at high rates for two reasons. First, these accidents often take place at high speeds, and high speeds impart greater forces that lead to more violent head and neck movements. Second, being hit from the side can produce a sideways head and neck movement, which is less natural and can lead to a greater likelihood of whiplash.
Whiplash-induced head trauma can sometimes be difficult for a person to detect in the immediate aftermath of a car accident. This is why most experienced car accident lawyers advise anyone in a car accident to seek medical evaluation even they might seem fine at first impression.
T-Bone Accidents Often Lead to Secondary Impacts
For most car accidents, all the damage is done via the impact of the accident itself. But in more severe accidents, secondary impacts can be just as dangerous, if not more so. Unfortunately, T-bone accidents frequently lead to these secondary impacts.
A T-bone accident can push the car being hit sideways into oncoming traffic or another object, leading to a second or even third impact that also carries the risk of head trauma. A T-bone impact can also cause a car to spin or roll, and rolling in particular can subject the head to significant risk while the vehicle tumbles.
A T-bone accident is one of the most severe types of car accidents, and the heightened risk of head trauma is one of the primary reasons they're so dangerous. For numerous reasons, a T-bone accident is more likely to lead to head trauma for involved drivers.