Many people associate crush injuries with fields like construction or industrial work. While a majority of these injuries do take place in such dangerous fields, they are not the only areas of risk for a crush injury.
What other situations can lead to crush incidents? One is surprisingly common: car crashes.
How crush injuries happen
Medline Plus discusses crush injuries that occur in crashes. Cars these days are often built with things like crash cages, i.e. steel supports within a car frame meant to keep the car from crumpling too badly if it ends up impacted.
However, the ways in which a car could end up damaged are seemingly endless. Even a crash cage cannot prevent every single part of the car from potentially crumpling, even if it keeps the main structure of the car intact.
The most likely body parts to injure
This is why many crush injuries that happen in a car involve the hands, legs or feet. If the front of the car ends up crushed or the dashboard traps a person’s legs, there is often no structural support in place to protect the driver or passenger.
It is also possible to get the hands wedged into awkward places due to their relatively small size, which can easily end up trapped and crushed if the car ends up impacting the ground or any other large or heavy objects should it roll.
Crush injuries can cause traumatic damage and result in life-altering – or even life-ending – injuries. As such, it is important to get immediate medical care onto the scene of any crash in the event that such serious damage has happened.