Florida personal injury lawyers face the difficult task of convincing insurance adjusters, opposing lawyers, judges and juries that occupants in vehicles suffering only minor property damage from crashes have sustained significant injuries. Common sense and logic seem to be working against Plaintiffs’ lawyers – ‘how can there be serious personal injuries without significant property damage?’ The answer is that there is more to the dynamics of a crash than meets the eye.
Vehicle damage is just one factor of many in determining impact speed. Many parameters such as vehicle masses, impact angles, the pre-impact velocity of both vehicles, crush resistance, metallurgical fatigue, etc., effect how the bumpers behave during an impact. One example of the variability is that older vehicles generally have stronger bumpers and can absorb greater impacts while showing less damage than newer cars where style dominates over function.
This is a complex subject that will touched on in greater detail in later blogs.