It’s no secret that motorcycle accidents can cause significant and life-changing injuries. These injuries can range from soft tissue injuries and fractures to spinal injuries and brain trauma.
So it’s easy to see how the fallout from these accidents can cause emotional distress. Accident victims have just one way to recover compensation, and that’s to file a personal injury claim against the at-fault party’s insurance company. Hiring a motorcycle accident lawyer makes that process easier.
The following are several types of emotional damages suffered by motorcycle accident victims.
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
While most commonly associated with soldiers returning from war, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can come from any harrowing experience.
According to the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH), PTSD symptoms are grouped into three categories:
- Re-experiencing: flashbacks, nightmares and thoughts about the incident.
- Avoidance: avoiding certain events or actions, as well as emotional numbness, guilt and depression, difficulty remembering the event.
- Hyperarousal: easily startled, edginess, trouble sleeping, and intense episodes of anger.
Head Injuries and Depression
If you’ve been in a motorcycle accident or know someone that has, it’s likely that there’s been a brain injury. A traumatic brain injury (TBI) happens when a bump, blow, jolt, or other head injury causes damage to the brain.
Most states have motorcycle helmet laws that require riders to wear helmets. Unfortunately, helmets can’t prevent all accidents.
A study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry states that one-third of participants developed a “major depressive disorder” within the first year of suffering a TBI. This is often unavoidable, but the symptoms and treatment can manage the severity.
Emotional Trauma
Your personal injury claim could help you recover damages for your injuries, things such as TBIs, spinal cord injuries, etc. In a motorcycle accident, you can also get damages for emotional trauma, which isn’t as easy to determine.
If you’ve experienced any of the following things, you can likely be compensated:
- Mental health assessment
- Counseling
- Treatment
- Mental anguish