Truck rollovers are very serious crashes because trucks are so big and heavy. When these crashes happen, people can get hurt in many ways. Some might even die or have injuries that change their lives forever.
The most common injury is a traumatic brain injury (TBI). TBIs can be as simple as a concussion or as serious as long-term brain damage. Many people also hurt their spinal cords, which can make them unable to move temporarily or forever. These crashes can also hurt the inside of the body, like the liver, spleen, and kidneys. It’s also normal for people to break bones and get cuts from broken glass and metal pieces.
Knowing about these injuries helps emergency teams, doctors, and lawyers to do their jobs after a truck rollover.
Traumatic Brain Injuries
Head injuries from truck rollovers can be really bad. When a truck flips over, it shakes your head so much that it can cause brain damage, which doctors call traumatic brain injuries, or TBIs. These injuries happen when something hits your head hard or shakes it back and forth, and they can be as minor as a concussion or as serious as long-term brain problems.
People with TBIs might have trouble thinking, moving, feeling, or controlling their emotions. During the crash, the brain moves quickly and hits the inside of the skull, which can tear or bruise brain tissue and even cause bleeding.
It’s important to get checked by a doctor right away if you’re in a rollover accident because the effects of a TBI can change a lot and you never know how serious it might be.
Spinal Cord Damage
Spinal cord injuries are a serious problem in truck rollovers. They can cause life-long issues with moving around and need quick medical help. These injuries happen when the rollover makes the bones in the spine break, move out of place, or get squished. This can damage the spinal cord by bruising, partly tearing, or completely cutting it.
How bad and where the injury is on the spine changes how much it affects the body. Damage high up in the neck area can cause quadriplegia, which is when you can’t move your arms and legs. If the damage is in the middle or lower back, it might cause paraplegia, where the legs don’t work properly.
Doctors use tools like MRI scans to see exactly where and how bad the injury is. This helps them decide on the best treatment and figure out the chances of getting better.
Internal Organ Trauma
In truck rollovers, the spine isn’t the only thing at risk; the internal organs can get badly hurt too. This happens because of the strong forces and pressure when the accident occurs. Organs like the liver and spleen can tear or burst because they’re big and located right in the middle of the belly.
If someone loses a lot of blood from these injuries, it can lead to hemorrhagic shock, which is very dangerous and can be fatal.
Doctors use special scans called FAST or CT scans to see how much the organs are hurt. If they find damage, surgery might be needed right away to fix the organs and stop the bleeding. This is why it’s super important to get checked by a doctor quickly after a rollover truck accident.
Bone Fractures and Breaks
Moving on from the dangers to internal organs, it’s common to see bone fractures and breaks in truck rollovers. This happens because the crash throws people around inside the truck, and they hit the interior and other objects hard. The force from these crashes is too much for bones to handle, causing them to break.
These breaks can be simple, with the bone staying inside the skin, or more severe, with the bone sticking out through the skin. Ribs often break because of the squeezing pressure during a crash, but arms and legs can break easily too.
Looking at how rollovers happen, we see that the spinning and sudden stopping of the truck play a big part in how bad the bone damage is. This means that people who get hurt in these accidents need a team of different medical experts to help them heal and get back to their everyday lives.
Lacerations and Contusions
When trucks flip over, people often get bad cuts and bruises because they hit sharp corners and hard surfaces. These cuts can be shallow or very deep, sometimes even showing the layers underneath the skin, and may need stitches or surgery. Doctors look at how long, deep, and dirty these cuts are to figure out if there’s a high chance of infection and how complex the treatment will be.
Bruises happen when something hits you hard without breaking the skin, which can crush blood vessels and cause bleeding under the skin. By looking closely at bruises, doctors can understand how much soft tissue is damaged and if there’s any injury to the organs inside. If the bleeding is bad, it can lead to a hematoma. This might need a doctor to check if surgery is needed to stop serious problems like compartment syndrome.
Conclusion
Rollover truck crashes often lead to serious injuries like head trauma, spine damage, internal bleeding, broken bones, and cuts. These injuries can change someone’s life, needing a lot of medical care and time to get better.
It’s important to have strong safety rules to prevent these accidents and to make sure that anyone hurt gets help from doctors right away.