How To Help An Injured Person At The Scene Of A Car Accident

It is easy to panic and not to think clearly in the immediate aftermath, but sometimes the opposite can happen, and people can show a better than usual ability to stay calm and to think of solutions to immediate problems.  In The Perennial Philosophy, Aldous Huxley describes an incident on a British military aircraft where three of the six men onboard suffered serious injuries.  The uninjured men put aside their differences and tended to their injured brethren while landing the plane safely.  Likewise, after a car accident that involves injuries, the most important thing to think about is getting medical attention for people who need it.  All the other things that are important for recovering from your accident-related financial losses, such as not letting the car insurance companies trick you into saying the wrong thing, can wait.  The sooner you contact a Columbia car accident lawyer after an accident, the better, but before you do that, you should have your injuries medically evaluated and ensure that everyone who needs medical treatment is receiving it.

Getting to Safety After an Accident

If the cars involved in an accident are drivable, you should pull off to the side of the road to avoid causing a chain reaction collision.  You should also ask if anyone is injured.  Remember that some painful injuries, like concussions and whiplash injury, do not show symptoms immediately.  Even if you feel fine, you should be examined at a hospital emergency room on the same day as the accident.  If the car is immobile, you should get out and stand a safe distance away from it; collision-induced damage could cause a fire or explosion to occur, and you want to be far away from the car if that happens.

How Attempts to Help Can Make Serious Injuries Worse

If anyone in either of the vehicles is unconscious or appears to have serious injuries such as bone fractures or spinal cord injuries, do not just use your best instincts.  You might have learned about first aid in the Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts, but you are out of your depth when it comes to life-threatening injuries.  Call 911, and follow the instructions that the operators give you about what to do or not do to assist any injured people.  In the case of spinal cord injuries, it is especially important to wait until first responders can get the person into a stable position to transport them to the hospital.  By following the 911 operator’s instructions and resisting the urge to try to do something heroic, you could be making it possible for the medical team to save the injured person from permanent paralysis.

Let Us Help You Today

The car accident lawyers at the Stanley Law Group can help you if you were injured in a car accident, even if other people involved suffered more severe injuries than you did.  Contact The Stanley Law Group in Columbia, South Carolina or call (803)799-4700 for a free initial consultation.

Source:

sharecare.com/health/first-aid-risks/dangers-moving-injured-person