Traumatic Brain Injury from Car Accidents

Injuries from car accidents are the second leading cause of traumatic brain injuries in Michigan.   The reason is that the human brain is very susceptible to injury from the forces that are generated by a typical motor vehicle accident.   In most automobile accidents, the brain may be injured by the head striking an object, such as a car windshield or dashboard.  The brain can also suffer injury without a direct blow to the head.  In these accidents, the brain undergoes a sudden backward and forward motion, or a twisting.  In most car accidents, these types of forces are commonly referred to as “whiplash” type injuries.  These types of injuries are called closed head injuries, because the injury takes place within the skull. 

Each year, there are thousands of people injured in Michigan car accidents that suffer a traumatic brain injury.  In fact, the Center for Disease Control estimates that approximately 1.5 million people suffer some form of TBI each year in the United States.  Of these, approximately 20% are due to motor vehicle injury accidents. 

Brain injuries are called the “silent epidemic” injury by many lawyers and doctors familiar with TBI.  There are two reasons for this.  One is the vast number of people who live with some form of disability caused by traumatic brain injury. 

Selecting a Michigan Traumatic Brain Injury Lawyer

The second reason why TBI cases are called a silent epidemic is that they can be so  challenging for personal injury lawyers to prove.  Many traumatically brain injured accident victims appear outwardly fine and look normal.  Most talk well and most TBI accident victims do not display obvious signs of a brain injury.  Even the medical classifications are misleading: most people are diagnosed with “mild” traumatic brain injury, but this is a medical classification only, it does not mean that the disabilities and impairments from the TBI are also mild to the TBI survivor.   

An additional challenge to proving traumatic brain injuries for many personal injury lawyers is that the vast majority of  brain injuries also have normal diagnostic testing, such as the MRI or CT scan.  And most people with traumatic brain injury have normal neurological examinations, as the gross neurological examination that most doctors use will not detect mild and moderate traumatic brain injury in most cases.

This does not mean that these cases cannot be proven at trial and won by personal injury lawyers representing the TBI accident victim.  It does mean that when selecting a lawyer to help someone who has been diagnosed with a brain injury, it is important to find a lawyer who has experience litigating these types of cases.   The lawyers at Michigan Auto Law have received some of the largest TBI verdicts and settlements in Michigan.  We invite you to read our verdicts and settlement results and look at testimonials from other TBI accident victims that we have been able to help and assist.