The injury attorneys at Madalon Law have helped rear end car accident victims in Miami, Broward, Palm Beach and other Florida counties.

A rear end collision is a car accident where a vehicle hits another vehicle from behind. This is one of the most common types of vehicle accidents and can be seen daily on I-95, the Florida Turnpike, 595 or any other highway in Florida. These accidents are so common; the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports that roughly 29% of all car accident crashes involve a rear end collision.

Rear end car accidents are more serious than you might think.

The severity of these car accidents can vary greatly – depending on the speed the vehicle from behind is traveling when it hits the other vehicle. Rear end accidents can cause damage as little as a scratch or ding, or damage as severe as destroying the back of a car. With rear end accidents, the amount of force is transferred to the people in the car. Because of this, a person can suffer whiplash, knee pain, neck pain, back pain and even death from these types of accidents.

Some of the most common injuries from rear end accidents include:

• Whiplash – this can also be called a neck strain or neck sprain. Whiplash can be caused by an abrupt forward or backward jerking of the neck or head. Because symptoms of whiplash can be delayed for 24 hours, you may not realize how “banged up” you are till the following day.
• Herniation – this happens when the outer fiber surrounding your disk becomes torn. Symptoms of severe herniation can include numbness, tingling, back pain and even paralysis in the worse cases. Because this involves the spine, you can even feel pain in other parts of your body like legs and feet.
• Concussion – This is very common with rear end car accidents. A concussion is when a person’s brain is injured by striking his or her skull. We hear about this a lot in the NFL with helmet to helmet hits, but the same can happen to a person in a rear end car accident if the drivers head strikes a windshield or dashboard. This is an injury that can easily go undetected, which is why a doctor will ask family members to keep an eye on the victim for the 24 hours following the accident.

Here are some things to keep in mind with injuries from rear end accidents:

• The adrenaline factor: If you’ve just been in an accident, chances are your adrenaline is pumping. This can mask incredible levels of pain. You hear it all the time; people feeling fine, but then they wake up the next day and are in pain from the accident. The damage (or lack of) to the car is not the same as the damage to you. Even a small fender bender can leave you injured if you didn’t see it coming and jolted in your car seat. Get yourself checked out
• Call the police, file a report and have them issue a citation: The same person begging you not to call the police and playing down the entire accident like it’s not a big deal will be the same person calling their insurance company and telling them a different story. A police report is great documentation. A citation is one of the major factors in an insurance company’s decision on amount of compensation to pay the other driver.
• Pictures and contact info: Remember to also take pictures of the entire scene and damage done to the vehicle, as well as get the contact information of any and all witnesses of the accident.

Once you’ve done all of this, then you need to contact a law firm that is familiar with these types of cases and knows how to gather and use all of the information to make sure you receive the financial compensation you and your family deserve. Contact the injury attorneys at Madalon Law today for your free consultation. Ask to speak to one of our auto accident lawyers and they will gladly answer any questions you have about the rear end collision you were involved in.