Seeking Medical Attention Following Virginia Pedestrian Accident
The paramount concern after any pedestrian accident is for the pedestrian’s safety. Oftentimes, a pedestrian accident can involve head injuries, traumatic brain injury, and other serious injuries that need to get evaluated by a medical professional as soon as possible. Additionally, not going to a doctor or going at a later date can have a huge impact if you decide later to file a claim. To learn more about what steps you should take following an accident, call and schedule a consultation with a Virginia pedestrian accident lawyer today.
Importance of Seeking Medical Care
It’s always important to seek immediate medical care in any accident in which you’ve sustained injuries, however, it’s all the more important for a pedestrian because of the potential gravity or seriousness of the injuries. A lot of the time, pedestrians will strike their head on the cement or sustain very serious injuries, including internal injuries, as a result of the actual trauma, the blunt force from the vehicle striking their bodies. In most pedestrian accidents there are two points of impact that take place , the first being when the vehicle strikes the pedestrian, and the second being when the pedestrian strikes the ground or another object on the road, in the crosswalk, or on the sidewalk. Most vehicle accidents involving two automobiles, involve just one impact unless there are more than two vehicles or if a vehicle is pushed into some inanimate object.
Multiple points of impact give you more potential types of injuries that you can suffer. Injuries in pedestrian accidents are also serious in nature because there’s nothing protecting a pedestrian. In a vehicle, you’ve got a seat-belt and an airbag and yet we still see how badly people can get injured in auto accidents. Take away some of those safety features and you really can deal with some really bad injuries because there’s nothing there to protect a pedestrian. In a pedestrian accident, the pedestrian is essentially a sitting duck with nothing to protect them from an impact.
Cases Where The Pain Sets in Later
Anybody who is hit by a vehicle while on foot should seek medical attention immediately, as you could still be in shock and not realize how badly you’re injured or if you’ve been injured at all.
If for some reason you don’t seek care immediately, and then a couple days later you start noticing the pain, then it’s important to get in touch with either your primary care physician or to go to the emergency room as soon as possible and let them know when the collision actually occurred. If there aren’t witnesses or if there’s no police report, then at least having the doctor’s record showing when the accident actually occurred can help your case. As a rule of thumb, any time you’re injured, no matter what the cause, it’s important to get medical care as soon as possible.
