How Long Should You Be Sore after a Car Accident

Car accidents vary, from small bumps to huge crashes that could almost cost you your life. In most cases, even after a small car accident, there are injuries to look into.

Chances are that, if not immediately after the car accident, in few hours or days after sustaining these injuries your body will start aching. So it’s only normal to ask “how long should you be sore after a car accident?”.

Well, there is no exact answer, but we’ll try to see together what you can expect after such a collision and what to do in order to get better.

The severity of your injuries depend on:

the speed of the vehicles involved in the accident – it’s well known that, the greater the speed at which the impact occurs, the bigger the injuries.
the types of vehicles involved – if you get hit by another car or if you get hit by a tractor trailer – the results vary. In this case, the occupants of the smaller / lighter / weaker vehicle will sustain worse injuries than the ones in a strong vehicle.
safety equipment – wearing your seatbelt can make a huge difference, keeping your child strapped into a safe car seat can save lives, having a decent air bag system can also give you the chance to some out of a car accident with less injuries than without one.
collision type – rear end collisions, head-on accidents and side collisions all have their own particularities and can result in different types and severities of injuries.
age, overall health, resilience – injuries are different for younger bodies than for the elderly, a healthy athletic person stands more chances to recover faster than someone whose overall health is not as stellar.

How Long Should You Be Sore after a Car Accident?

Now that we found out what affects the severity of your injuries, let’s see the different types of injuries and how much time it would take to heal after a car crash.

Disclaimer: please use these guidelines only for educational purposes and go see an accident doctor. They are the only ones who can treat and document your injuries. If you need an accident doctor in New York City, choose one of our convenient locations:

Soft Tissue Injuries – these usually involve ligaments, tendons and muscles. One of the most common injuries in this categories is whiplash. The soreness could go away after a few weeks or even months (depending on the severity).
Concussions – they occur when your brain hits the inside of your skull, during the car crash. Depending on the speed, location and severity of the accident, concussions can be pretty mild and have few weeks recovery time or, in worse cases, take months to fully recover. In some extremely severe accidents, the patient might never fully recover.
Facial injuries – they appear as your face either hits the steering wheel, the windshield or the airbags that deploy during the car accident. If you were lucky to get just few bruises, they will heal in days, but there can also be more serious injuries such as cuts, broken nose or cheekbones etc. These can take weeks and even months to fully heal.
Broken bones – from broken collarbones or ribs to broken arms and legs, there’s a plethora of bones that can sustain horrible injuries during a car accident. Surgery might be needed and the recovery times soar in this case.

All these details, even if just for educational purposes, should show you that car accidents are unique and can turn incredibly severe, even if you don’t feel anything wrong after few minutes from the event.

Many of our patients have noticed they started feeling really sore hours and even days after the car accident, this is why our advise is to seek medical attention as soon as possible.

Few quick tips:

go to the ER, if needed and start documenting your medical journey. When having to deal with insurance adjusters, make sure you have all the data, have kept all your medical appointments and are ready for a strong case. Reading this should show you one thing: recovery after a car accident can be hard and extremely costly, so you need to make sure you do have a case and can recoup these expenses.
find a good car accident doctor. We pride with an incredible track record and extremely happy patients who recovered nicely after these injuries. Please feel free to call us at: 917 293 9256 and we’ll make sure your recovery is smooth and lasting.