Traumatic Brain Injury and Truck Accidents

What Is A Traumatic Brain Injury?

When a commercial truck slams into a passenger vehicle, the human brain absorbs impact no airbag fully protects against. Given the sheer size of the vehicle involved, an unfortunate fact is that a traumatic brain injury and truck accidents tend to go hand-in-hand.

Also commonly referred to as a TBI for short, a traumatic brain injury can be one of the most devastating results of a truck accident (or even a traditional car accident) that you can encounter. TBIs occur when sudden trauma disrupts normal brain function, with mild concussions being the most common form. This type of trauma could stem from a sudden jolt or other type of extreme impact that disrupts the normal function of the human brain within the skull.

The Invisible Injury That Changes Everything

After a serious crash, many truck accident victims are often told that their CT scans look completely normal. Sadly, this isn't a guarantee that their brain is unharmed. They may not have bleeding or fractures, but microscopic tearing of nerve fibers might still be present, meaning that severe brain damage is a possibility. Symptoms of a brain injury after a truck wreck can take hours or sometimes days to appear. People may develop headaches, dizziness, brain fog, sleep issues, light and noise sensitivity, mood swings, or even memory loss long after the crash.

One minute, a Georgia truck accident victim has a totally normal CT scan in the emergency room... but symptoms begin at work two days later. An MRI and neuropsychological testing confirm the head injury. Suddenly, what may have started as a mild headache becomes a ripple effect in the worst possible way, leading to missed deadlines, reduced stamina, sudden and unexplained irritability, and even strain on family routines. These head injuries can disrupt daily functioning in ways others can't see but victims can't escape.

Why Truck Accidents Cause Serious Traumatic Brain Injuries

When a regular-sized vehicle collides with a larger one like a semi-truck or commercial truck, the human body experiences the type of force that it simply wasn't built to sustain. Your body (along with your car) may suddenly stop moving, but the brain keeps moving inside the skull. This can stretch and even tear delicate neural tissue in the process. This can cause contusions, hematomas, and more. All of this can explain why someone can get a serious truck accident brain injury even if they weren't obviously hit in the head.

Keep in mind that a fully loaded semi truck can literally weigh tens of thousands of pounds. Combine that with a truck driver who is fatigued or otherwise distracted, and this can result in catastrophic injuries. In some crashes, hours-of-service violations add risk when rest breaks are skipped.

Evidence of the force at which the collision happened, along with who might be at fault, can be found from sources like the EDR black box data, ELD logs, any dashcam that might be present in either vehicle, whether the brakes were applied, as well as speed and throttle data. A victim may also have photos, notes, or location data that help tell the story.

For example, a rear-end collision with a tractor-trailer at just 30 miles per hour may appear minor but can cause lasting injury. Even when the passenger vehicle shows little visible damage, rotational forces within the skull can result in a life-changing TBI.

According to the CDC and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, these types of forces are a leading cause of long-term disability after motor vehicle accidents involving commercial trucks.

 

 

Important Steps to Protect Your Brain Injury Claim

In the immediate aftermath of an injury after a truck accident, there are a few important steps you should take before you speak to any representative from a trucking company. This is all advice that any personal injury lawyer would give you, regardless of whether a traumatic brain injury lawsuit was in your future.

Always start with immediate medical care, especially if you're in a situation where symptoms have already begun to develop. This will include an ER visit and follow-up appointments with a brain injury specialist. Do NOT return to work or physical activity until cleared by a medical professional who understands traumatic brain injury recovery.

Any medical team that you're working with may recommend advanced imaging such as MRI or DTI scans, vestibular and vision assessments, and neuropsychological testing. Each of these will go a long way towards helping to confirm the nature and severity of the injury.

It's also wise to keep a daily symptom journal, track missed workdays, note caregiver observations, and photograph any visible injuries. These records can become essential proof in a traumatic brain injury lawsuit. Even if you don't have severe brain damage, this will still help truck accident victims get the results they deserve.

Along the same lines, employment or school performance records are also incredibly valuable. Missed deadlines, lower grades, or changes in behavior can show how the TBI has disrupted the way your brain normally works.

Your truck accident attorney can also send a spoliation letter to the trucking company to preserve key evidence like EDR data, maintenance logs, and even dashcam videos. This evidence, coupled with your own records, will go a long way towards proving exactly what happened.

Advantages of Working With a Specialized Traumatic Brain Injury Attorney

Working with an experienced truck accident and brain injury lawyer gives you access to a specialized team that will not only challenge outcomes but will also stand by your side from the early investigation and medical strategy phase all the way through expert workup and visuals that explain the injury in a court of law.

A skilled attorney will leverage the laws for traumatic brain injury cases to your advantage and coordinate care with neurologists, neuropsychologists, and therapists. This will go a long way towards guaranteeing that each step of recovery is documented in a way that supports your case.

They also put together a team of experts, such as a trucking safety specialist, a life care planner, and a vocational expert, to explain how the injury affects long-term health and earning capacity.

You'll also want to practice what is called insurance hygiene. This means you should always avoid giving recorded statements (especially to trucking companies) and keep authorizations narrow. Route all calls through your attorney once you get one.

In Georgia, don't forget that you have a two-year personal injury deadline and a 50% bar on fault. This means that you can't recover anything if you're found more than 50% at fault, so every piece of evidence helps.

Don't Take Less Than Your Case is Worth In Traumatic Brain Injury and Truck Accidents

As you would expect, insurance companies involved in these types of car accident and truck crash situations will always try to downplay damage to brain tissue because the impact of something like a diffuse axonal injury isn't immediately obvious.

They'll insist that your CT scan is normal, for example. Or they'll claim that your symptoms are from emotional stress that have nothing to do with the physical aspects at play. They'll usually make quick, lowball settlement offers to try to get rid of the case before you even have a chance to understand how severe your injury truly is.

That's why the best defense will always be preparation and a rock-solid foundation of evidence at your side. When you align with the right personal injury lawyer in Georgia, you align with the right specialists to do just that. You can document how your symptoms impact your daily life, and get justice for things like lost wages, reduced earning capacity, pain and suffering, long-term care costs, and more.

With the right support, truck accident victims can fight for the compensation they deserve.

Traumatic brain injury and truck accidents are not things you want to navigate on your own. Thankfully, now you don't have to. If you live in Atlanta or the surrounding areas like Marietta, Griffin, Valdosta, or anywhere else in north or south Georgia and need an accomplished truck accident lawyer to handle your traumatic brain injury case, you've come to the right place. Call The Graham Firm today at (404) 526-9955 to request a free case review today.

Not only will our truck accident brain injury lawyer fight to protect key data, but we can also coordinate the right medical testing and build the strongest path forward possible.