{"id":5202,"date":"2018-02-22T12:58:21","date_gmt":"2018-02-22T12:58:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mullenandmullen.com\/can-you-get-seriously-injured-in-low-speed-crashes\/"},"modified":"2023-10-03T12:36:53","modified_gmt":"2023-10-03T12:36:53","slug":"can-you-get-seriously-injured-in-low-speed-crashes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mullenandmullen.com\/personal-injury-lawyer\/articles\/can-you-get-seriously-injured-in-low-speed-crashes\/","title":{"rendered":"Can you get seriously injured in low speed collisions?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Can you get severely hurt in an accident driving just 5-10 mph? The truth may surprise you. Learn the reality of the relationship between injuries and driving speed.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Seems logical that the higher the speed, the more severe your injuries, right?<\/p>\n

After all, you don\u2019t hear of people flying through their windshields while driving at 5 mph, do you?<\/p>\n

At first thought, this seems a perfectly natural conclusion to come to.<\/p>\n

There may be some truth to this. But the reality is that no one actually precisely knows.<\/p>\n

Case in point: a 1981 study by Callier found<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cA collision, when the offending car moves at a rate as slow as seven (7) mph can cause severe tissue damage and injury.\u201d<\/p>\n

The quote was actually in reference to understanding the relationship between vehicle damage and the severity of injuries in a car accident.<\/p>\n

But clearly, you can also reasonably draw the obvious conclusion that driving slower doesn\u2019t guarantee you won\u2019t experience a severe injury.<\/p>\n

And then another quote from McNab puts this further into perspective:<\/p>\n

\u201c\u20263.7 to 5 mph rear-end impact, which subjects the cervical spine to as much as 4.5 G-forces, constitutes the threshold for mild cervical strain injury.\u201d<\/p>\n

Truthfully, no one understands the relationship between speed and injury severity.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Do higher speeds lead to more severe injuries in car crashes?<\/p>\n

Speed is definitely a factor. Research backs that up. But the true relationship between speed and injury severity remains foggy.<\/p>\n

Richards and Cuerden, researchers in the United Kingdom\u2019s Transport Research Laboratory, found<\/a> basically an ambiguous relationship. For example, they noticed clear differences among slightly, seriously, and fatally injured drivers in both frontal and side impacts.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor car drivers in frontal impacts with a delta-v of 12\u201320 mph, there were drivers who were slightly, seriously and fatally injured.\u201d<\/p>\n

Do you understand correlation and how it relates to causation?<\/p>\n

\u201cCorrelation,\u201d speaking scientifically, simply means the degree of connection between two types of data observed. When you notice a change in one, you notice a change in the other.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s measured on a scale from -1.0 to +1.0. At +1.0, you notice a one-unit change in both factors. At +.5, you notice a 1-unit change in one factor, but then a 2-unit change in the other.<\/p>\n

However, while correlation notes change that happens between two factors, it doesn\u2019t mean one causes the other.<\/p>\n

So when you talk about speed and accident severity, speed has a correlation with accident and injury severity. However, it doesn\u2019t have a perfect 1 to 1 cause.<\/p>\n

What could other factors be?<\/p>\n

Things like:<\/p>\n