How Long Should You Feel Sore After a Car Accident

How Long Should You Feel Sore After a Car Accident?

After your recent car accident, you expected to feel sore, but has it gone on too long? Generally, car accident injury soreness can last for as many as six weeks. However, several factors determine how long you can expect to feel discomfort. Even a minor fender bender can trigger unexpected soreness in the aftermath. Learn more about how long soreness from motor vehicle accident injuries lasts and the elements that determine that time frame.

What Factors Affect Soreness?

While six weeks is the average time to experience discomfort or feel sore after a car accident, you must consider all the incident’s circumstances. For instance, if you are older, then your body may need more time to recover than a younger person. Additionally, expect a person in better physical condition to bounce back faster than a person in poor health or with a pre-existing medical condition.

Where you sat in the vehicle when the accident occurred also affects recovery time. For instance, in a front-end crash, the driver and passenger in the front seat usually sustain the brunt of any impact the car does not absorb. Were you wearing your seat belt during the accident? What safety features did the vehicle involved in the accident have? Remember, even if you were safely buckled in during the accident, seatbelt and airbag injuries are common.

One factor often forgotten in these situations is the body’s natural reactions to danger. Your body releases endorphins and adrenaline during extreme situations such as car crashes. These natural chemicals can mask your pain long after the accident, making you believe you are uninjured. In the following days or weeks, you may start experiencing sustained aches and pains.

Additional soreness factors include:

• The speed at which the crash occurred
• The size of the vehicles in the accident
• The nature of the sustained injuries

As you can see, the time you can expect to experience feeling sore after a car accident varies. Take steps to address your injuries and better estimate how long you can expect to remain in pain.

Can You Experience Delayed Symptoms?

Besides adrenaline and endorphins, you may experience delayed injury symptoms for additional reasons. Concussions and other traumatic brain injuries are sometimes difficult for victims to notice. Symptoms of such injuries include headaches, blurred vision, nightmares, and mood swings. You may associate such indications with other health or medical conditions.

If the accident triggers a slipped spinal cord disc, you may not notice symptoms until much later. It may not be until you lift a heavy object or shift your body the wrong way that you notice something is amiss. Worse, lifting or moving the wrong way could worsen an injury that you did not even know you had, further exacerbating your condition.

One reason to avoid telling police or insurance reps that you’re “fine” after an accident is the risk of delayed symptoms. By saying you feel okay, you may unintentionally limit your rights later on. Instead, let a medical professional assess your condition to confirm if you’re truly uninjured.

Should You Receive Medical Attention After Every Car Accident?

Even if your car accident seems minor and you think rest and painkillers are enough, it’s essential to have a doctor examine you for any hidden injuries. This way, you’ll know if the soreness or pain you feel in the days after the crash is directly linked to the accident or if it could be due to other health conditions.

Seeing a doctor soon after the accident also helps build a solid timeline and gather evidence if you decide to pursue a legal claim or file with an insurance provider. Delaying medical treatment can unintentionally signal that your injuries aren’t serious, giving insurance companies a reason to reduce or deny your claim. Remember, insurers are businesses, and they often aim to cut costs by minimizing settlement offers, so timely medical documentation strengthens your case.

How Can You Cover the Cost of Resulting Medical Care?

With car accident injuries, you must think beyond immediate medical costs. With medical bills alone, you must consider the potential for ongoing treatment or multiple procedures for a single injury. You may also need physical therapy or medication, both of which can become rather expensive.

Injuries extreme enough to require you to take time off work result in lost wages. Bill collectors do not stop sending notices, assessing late fees or calling you because you were injured. You must still provide for yourself and your family.

Severe injuries could leave you permanently disabled and unable to work for the rest of your life. You must also consider your state of mind while healing. Some injuries can lead to anxiety, depression, panic attacks, and other forms of emotional and mental distress.

Even if you have health insurance, you should not pay for another’s negligence. Also, your current policy may not be enough to cover the extent of your injuries. It may be in your best interest to make a full recovery to pursue damages against the at-fault party. Besides a physician, consider taking your case to an experienced auto accident attorney who knows your rights can help you understand the true extent of your injuries, and can assist you in receiving fair compensation.

Work With an Experienced Local Lawyer

No matter the degree or length of feeling sore after a car accident, you must protect your legal rights. Delayed symptoms do not have to delay your medical treatment or your right to fair compensation, not when you have a trusted and well-experienced legal advocate on your side.

Submit a request online or call us today at (866) 345-6784 to get in touch with an experienced lawyer in your area!

About the Author

Aaron is a professional legal writer with a B.S. in English Education from Southern Illinois University – Carbondale. He has written, published, and edited thousands of legal articles for RequestLegalHelp, which has connected over 5 million people to legal help in the United States.

With over five years of experience writing thousands of legal articles for law firms across the U.S. and Canada, Aaron specializes in covering federal, state, and city-level legal issues ranging from auto accidents to wrongful terminations. Contact Aaron at [email protected] for article suggestions, collaborations, or inquiries.