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Low Speed Vehicle Injuries

How can an injury be sustained in a road traffic accident when there is no damage to the vehicle?

Soft tissue strain injuries, particularly involving the neck and back, are very common after road traffic accidents, even at low speeds. In many cases the extent of damage to a vehicle makes it obvious how the occupant came to be injured, but in others there is minimal or no damage to a vehicle yet an injury has clearly been sustained.

There are no scans or other diagnostic tests available to confirm or refute the presence of an injury. There is good evidence that such injuries can be sustained at speeds as low as three miles per hour. Modern cars are designed to deform on impact, offering ever increasing protection to drivers in higher speed impacts by allowing the car rather than the occupant to absorb the energy of the collision.

It may be that at low speeds when there is no vehicular damage, a greater proportion of the energy is transferred to the occupant causing injury. The analogy of snooker balls can be helpful – when struck, there is clearly enough energy transferred to the ball to make it move, but like the car in a low speed collision, it does not change shape!

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