Insurers increasingly rely on the expertise of biomechanical engineers to evaluate low- and high-impact vehicular accidents. This type of engineer will have a firm grasp of human anatomy and physiology, kinematics, and neuroscience, among other disciplines.
Therefore they understand how muscles, tissues, tendons, and bones will react to a given force, such as impact sustained in various types of accidents. All of this can be applied to establish injury causation in a given case. The biomechanical engineer weigh factors, such the mechanism of the accident; the kinematics of the claimant; the nature and magnitude of forces generated; and the tolerance of a particular body part to certain forces applied by a certain mechanism.
Specifically, biomechanics is increasingly appropriate for analyzing suspicious minor-impact soft-tissue (MIST) bodily injury claims, including those related to low-speed frontal, rear-end, and sideswipe accidents.
Of the millions involved in auto accidents each year, a significant portion involve alleged cases of whiplash. In such incidents, the claims professional will first look at the extent of damage to the vehicle(s) involved. A biomechanical engineer may then be consulted to determine if the force of the crash equates to the probability of a given injury.
For instance, how much force is required to cause a herniated disc on a lumbar spine? What about cervical, thoracic, and lumbar spine strains and sprains?
Animation Notes
This animation at the top of this article illustrates the motions of a driver whose vehicle experiences a rear-end collision. The occupant is first pushed into the seat back. The neck goes back into extension until the head is restrained by the headrest. At end of the rear motion, there is a forward rebound because of the properties of the seat. That forward motion of the torso is restrained by the seatbelt. The head and neck are controlled by the soft tissues of the neck.
In this particular scenario, strain to the neck muscles would be expected. However, structural damage to other tissues is unlikely in an otherwise healthy individual.
Animation courtesy of Rimkus Consulting Group, Inc.
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