Road accidents are common in Utah. In 2019, for example, the state responded to over 580 of these in only five days due to adverse weather conditions. A car insurance study also revealed that you might figure yourself in an accident every 18 years on average.
That’s why the state and health experts continue to teach the public on what to do if they meet an accident. Usually, you call your insurance company and then get the incident on the police record. If the vehicle is still salvageable, then you bring it to the garage.
What these tips often leave out is getting legal help, such as a truck accident attorney in Utah. Many of these crashes involve moderate to severe injuries. To understand this point, let’s talk about physics.
Everything Around Us Is Energy
Physics may be the last thing on your mind when driving. However, it can explain your vulnerability to injuries during accidents and the severity of the damage due to the impact.
To start the discussion, you can refer to this YouTube video by minutephysics. In hindsight, it explains the following:
- A car needs fuel to run, and a liter of it can produce massive amounts of kilojoules or energy.
- To convert chemical energy (from fuel) to kinetic energy (to move the car), the vehicle burns the former.
- About 80% of it turns into heat, and only 20% contributes to car motion. Still, it’s enough to power the vehicle and packs lots of energy.
- In physics, energy is neither created nor destroyed. Instead, it shifts to another form or transfers to something else. When you stop a car, you may “transfer” this energy on the brakes. The heat will then dissipate it.
- When you crash into an object like a tree, the front of your vehicle will absorb the energy upon impact.
Physics also teaches you an association between kinetic or motion energy and speed. This energy is even directly proportional to the square of the speed.
You can then imagine how much energy your car will have to deal with when it collides with a speeding truck.
Worse, while the front or the back may “soften” the blow, not many vehicles have long hoods or bumpers. It’s now easy and quick for the impact to affect you.
The Law of Inertia
It was Sir Isaac Newton that introduced to the world the three laws of physics. The first one refers to inertia.
It states that an object at rest or in motion in a straight line remains in the same state unless there’s an applied force.
When you meet an accident, such as a collision, the car can stop. The body, though, can still move forward because no force is preventing it from doing so. If you’re not wearing a seatbelt, you may end up being thrown outside the windshield.
If you’re wearing a seatbelt, you may still suffer from severe injuries when the impact is substantial. Your internal organs will also move forward during a collision.
Wearing the seatbelt, which reduces the acceleration, may lead to broken ribs. These can puncture your lungs.
The effect of car crashes on your life can be severe, as physics tells you. Because of this, you need to think beyond getting car insurance for repair. Legal help from an accident lawyer will ensure you can also receive compensation for your injuries.
