Car and truck accidents are often discussed as life changing. When you are involved in a collision with another vehicle, the physical forces unleashed can cause tremendous physical injuries.
Even with the occupant protection capabilities of modern vehicles, including air bags, seat belts, and crumple zones, crashes can be so severe as to leave their victims with broken bones, punctured lungs, back and spinal cord injuries and traumatic brain injuries.
However, if an accident occurs and no one is killed, we may think little more of that incident, figuring the injuries they received were minor, that they will recover and eventually go on with their life as if nothing ever happened.
An accident this week reminds us that even minor accidents can have a major affect. A woman from Connecticut was a passenger in her husband’s car. As they drove under a bridge on I-95 in New York, a chunk of concrete fell and crashed into the windshield of the vehicle.
The impact shattered the windshield and sprayed her face with glass and gravel. And while she is thankful she is alive, her future may have been irrecoverably changed by that chunk of concrete.
She needed 15 stitches to keep her eye closed, and doctors do not know if she suffered permanent damage to her eye. She had been ready to finish nursing school and begin work as a nurse. If she loses the ability to see out of one eye, she may have to change direction and find a new career.
While she knows she is lucky to be alive, the repercussions of this “minor” accident could leave her with a lifelong injury and have a long-term affect on many aspects of her life.
nbcconnecticut.com, “Glass Shreds Mom’s Eye After Concrete Hits Car,” Marc Santia, March 10, 2015