Rescuing Trapped Passengers in a Car Accident
I’m Ed Smith, a North Highlands Personal Injury Lawyer. Many issues need to be discussed when someone has been involved in a car accident, such as personal injuries and property damage. One problem that is often overlooked is how to rescue a passenger who has been trapped in a vehicle.
There are many different types of auto accidents that can produce serious traumatic injuries. These injuries could potentially turn catastrophic if someone is trapped in a vehicle. Some ways people can become trapped in a car include:
Being Unconscious: If someone has suffered a traumatic brain injury and is unconscious, he or she will be incapable of exiting a vehicle. In this case, the individual will require assistance to be removed from the car safely.
Overturned Car: A car that has flipped over onto its roof can also trap people inside. Someone could have trouble opening the door of a vehicle. If the top of the door has been compressed against the pavement, it could be very difficult to move.
Trapped Legs: One of the most common ways that people get trapped in a car is when their legs are stuck. Someone who rear-ends another vehicle at high speed could compress the front of his or her vehicle, leading to serious bone fractures, such as femur fractures, in the process. This could prevent the legs from accessing the door, requiring assistance from first-responders to extricate them from the car.
What Factors Need to be Considered?
When someone has been deemed trapped in a motor vehicle and requires assistance, there are several factors that everyone needs to consider. First, rescuers need to think about the different impacts that have occurred during the accident. This gives insight into the kind of injuries the victim sustained. The four points of impact in an auto accident are:
- The impact between a motor vehicle and an object.
- The impact of the individuals against the car, such as a window, door, or dashboard.
- The impact of the person’s organs against the rib cage or abdominal wall inside of the body.
- The impact of the passengers at the back of the car against the front seats or doors.
Depending on how serious the accident was, rescuers need to think about the potential rescue hazards. For example
- What happens if a car is leaking fluid? Could this potentially be flammable?
- What if a strange noise is coming from a car? Could this be a potentially toxic gas leaking from the vehicle?
Rescuers need to think about their own safety as well because they could end up with even more people needing to be rescued. If the car ignites, it could also cause wrongful death.
What Injuries Can Occur During a Rescue Attempt?
When first responders are freeing someone from the scene of an accident, they need to make sure that they don’t cause more injuries in the process. The jaws of life that they use to extricate people are large tools that have the potential to cause harm on their own. For example, they could cause:
Abdominal Trauma: Rescue attempts can leave someone with serious abdominal trauma. As the jaws of life are used to free someone, they could compress an already-injured abdomen. This can make existing injuries significantly worse.
Bone Fractures: If someone has bone fractures, these could potentially become displaced fractures if they shift position during a rescue attempt, making them worse. The hard tools can also cause bone fractures if misused.
Neck Injuries: An individual with neck injuries needs to be moved cautiously because this could make any damage to the spinal cord worse.
Watch YouTube Video: How it Works: Jaws of Life
This video takes a closer look at how the jaws of life tool works.
Car Accident & Personal Injury Lawyers in North Highlands
I’m Ed Smith, a North Highlands Personal Injury Lawyer. If you’ve been injured in an accident, call me for free, friendly advice at (916) 921-6400 or (800) 404-5400.
I’m a member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum.
You can read through some of our settlements and verdicts.
Our client reviews are on Avvo, Google, and Yelp.
Photo Attribution: The CC BY SA License, version 3.0, has given permission to print the image at the top of the page found on Wikimedia Commons.
:dr cha ds [cs 730] cv