In any case whiplash is nearly always a con. It's a well-known joke in the US where it was invented.
What TOTAL TOSH!
I was involved in an accident where I was hit from behind at fairly low speed (I was stationary)
at the time of the accident I felt fine, 3 hours later I was strapped to a hospital bed with a suspected broken neck.
I was lucky (?) it turned out to be badly strained neck muscles, I was off work for over a week, on light duties for a month, and still suffer bad neck pain/locking up of my neck 2 years later - I expect to suffer with this for the rest of my life.
In retrospect, I agreed compensation too early, I got 2 grand, thats not a lot for a lifetime of pain.... I saw my mother suffer with neck pain from when I first had memories, until she passed away, there were times she could hardly move for pain ... so I know what I may have to live with, I hope I dont suffer a fraction of her agony... to see people post comments like that makes my blood boil......
if you ever suffer whiplash then you WILL understand.
Edited by Webmaster on 04/05/2009 at 01:45
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Take it easy Swiss, I did say nearly always.
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You ask me to take it easy...I think I was!
I cannot see how anyone can say that whiplash is almost always fake.
the thing with damaged tissue injury's is that they are almost always invisible to the untrained eye.
I was examined by an independent doctor on behalf of the insurance company some time after the accident.
at that time I felt that the injury was pretty much healed, and thought the doctor may not find much sign of the injury.
within a few seconds he found the root area of the pain, and told me the muscle was still damaged, and was unlikely to ever heal totally. in short, I was very surprised at what the doctor found.
Have you ever suffered back pain? if you have then you will know how painful that can be, and how easy it can be to bring the pain back on.
you will also know that it is impossible for others to see your pain, other than the way you walk, and the tears in your eyes.... or are you just putting it on?
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Similar thing happened right outside my office a little while ago. Very minor corner to corner bump, didn't seem like much damage to either car. Fire brigade turn up and within minutes the roof was cut off one off them.
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Am sure there was a story of his happening to a brand new police car after they put someone in it after an accident the guy said he couldn't move and the roof had to be cut off?
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tinyurl.com/crnoyx
Although I could have sworn it was a BMW that I had remembered.
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I was driving to work last year and was the innocent victim of a tail end charlie teenager. The traffic head braked, he locked up and went straight into the back of my 2 week old car at approx 30mph. He admitted fault at the scene but changed his mind claiming he had been pushed into me etc
In the end it turned into a multi-vehicle pile up. As a result I have neck, back and shoulder problems. I can assure you that whiplash is not a con or a joke. It can cause genuine pain and discomfort. Maybe if someone collides with you and ends up causing you injury your attitude may change?
Edited by toblerone on 02/05/2009 at 00:01
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my neck is hurting as i read this
seriously
i wish that car had never hit me,it was a volvo,ive never ever bought a volvo since
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Thirty-odd years ago, someone collided with the rear end of my brother's A40 Somerset, I was in the front passenger seat. It appeared to do no more damage than a slightly re-shaped tail pipe.
I had a stiff neck for few weeks.
I've now got restricted neck movement.
I wonder why?
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All right.
No offence, sorry indeed, to those here who have genuinely suffered whiplash injury from being rear-ended. I take your word for it.
But bad cess to the many others who have claimed such injury just because they could get away with it.
You who have suffered whiplash know it can happen. But has none of you met a person who had made a good thing out of the unjustified claim, with a nudge and a wink?
Perhaps not. They may know a genuine case when they see one and know how to behave.
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...and gives it a nudge...
Taking the OP at face value, it is hard to see how giving the car in front a nudge can cause personal injury.
On t'other and, it is clear from the other posts that injuries can be caused at lower speeds than I previously thought.
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I find it interesting that people are not as tough as they used to be since ' No Win - No fee " solicitors got the go ahead to circle above traffic accident victims like vultures.
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It is why this country is so fused up. I recently turned down a job installing a fairly large network as I realised half my report would be on health and safety and not about the actual system proposed.
If the government want to know why Britian is bu*eered up they can start with health safety. The reason they don't move the cars is the emergency services are so scared of being sued :(.
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normally whip lash doesnt display symptoms until the day after the accident
at the time the people are so full of adrenalin they are pumped up and dont feel any pain
neck pain immediately after the accident if genuine is not typical and can be more serious
whip lash is definely a genuine problem as Ive suffered it and its not nice
however the current situation where 15 to 30 % of all uk car insurance premiums end up being paid out in whiplash claims is clearly out of balance
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In th bad old days when cars had massive chassis, inadequate brakes, no air bags, crumple zones, headrests, etc, whiplash injuries were presumably commonplace. Anyone remember half the population hobbling around on crutches or wearing neck braces?
Why, as cars have become "safer", are there so many cases of whiplash now?
Do people riding dodgem cars at funfairs get whiplash?
Edited by Cliff Pope on 03/05/2009 at 07:15
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I'd have thought that the severity of the injury would depend on if you were expecting it... would probably explain the dodgems scenario... you are definitely expecting it then!
Like back injuries, its also difficult to prove if its genuine or not, and our Gov passing a bill which allows "no win, no fee" claims has only made things worse, I'd agree... Best place to start would be petitioning your MP to get that bill revoked... but then what happens to the genuine claiments, they'd lose out... and you might be one of them in the future!
Edited by b308 on 03/05/2009 at 10:29
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Whatever the facts were about whiplash in this case, the police have certainly become much keener to simply close roads for maybe hours, while they follow all their clumsily elaborate 'procedures' after an accident, almost however small. I came across one (which I suspect happens quite often) on the Macclesfield-Buxton road beloved by bikers. One had gone off into a hedge, and because an ambulance had to attend near a blind corner they just closed several miles of road, thereby adding miles of detour to many drivers' journeys, on much more hazardous narrow lanes.
The total inconvenience, consequential annoyance and lowering of driving standards probably far outweighed the benefits of following 'procedures'.
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Elf 'n' safety gone mad without a doubt
Watching the traffic news one morning when I was in Las Vegas, it hadn't rained for ages then there was a downpour during the night, which made the roads greasy. There were six accidents during the morning rush hour on the spaghetti bowl and traffic was flowing freely. Drag the junk to the side of the highway and keep 'em moving, instead of bringing everything to a standstill for the best part of a day like we do.
Going into Bridgetown on the main road there were two workmen in the road, three cones and a "men at work" sign. Everything running smoothly and nobody died. When I mentioned to the taxi driver that back home we'd have half a mile of cones and temporary traffic lights for a couple of weeks he thought I'd been smoking "de herb".
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Treating every injury motoring accident, no matter how small the injury , as a crime scene is proving a bigger congestion causer than the school run .
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how small the injury as a crime scene
One for the police amongst us, but I didn't think they did that... if they thought there was suspicious circumstances, yes, but what we're talking about above is an "injury" accident, not a "crime" accident, and the reason for road closure is to protect the emergency services who are attending and prevent any further injury to the people involved when getting them out... or am I missing something?
TBH part of me says they are now going OTT, but the other part is saying.. "but if it was me that was injured"....
I suspect that if you could promise the emergency services that they would not be sued for any other injuries caused when getting them out of the car they could do it a lot faster... again we need to blame the real culprits which are, yet again, not the police/ambulance/fire brigade, but that bunch of idiots at Westminster...
Edited by b308 on 03/05/2009 at 17:59
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>> how small the injury as a crime scene One for the police amongst us but I didn't think they did that... if they thought there was suspicious circumstances yes but what we're talking about above is an "injury" accident not a "crime" accident and the reason for road closure is to protect the emergency services who are attending and prevent any further injury to the people involved when getting them out... or am I missing something?
We don't, but once again a regular poster isn't letting facts get in the way of a usual rant!
Sadly, claiming injury is very common. But once they do they all three emergency services (and the staff at the hospital) have to treat it as 'real'. It's very frustrating for all of us, because of the time wasted, that we could spend on more worthwhile things (like an ANPR operation for example ;) )
But on the alternative side, the elderly in particular can be seriously affected by even a minor shunt.
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Watching the traffic news one morning when I was in Las Vegas it hadn't rained for ages then there was a downpour during the night which made the roads greasy. There were six accidents during the morning rush hour on the spaghetti bowl and traffic was flowing freely. Drag the junk to the side of the highway and keep 'em moving instead of bringing everything to a standstill for the best part of a day like we do.
Same in Chicago. They have tow trucks out during the morning rush on all the main expressways. Shunts are cleared away very quickly. Very busy freeways in many parts of the USA have signs telling you to in the absence of injuries to get your car to the shoulder quickly following a "fender bender", before calling for help or exchanging details.
Even after a major accident with injuries they'll get some lanes open as quickly as they can and I've never heard of an expressway being closed entirely for more than a couple of hours.
You'd think given the lawyers over here they'd be even more paranoid than the UK about this stuff, but apparently not.
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Thirty-odd years ago someone collided with the rear end of my brother's A40
Forty-odd years ago there were 4 of us in a Mk II Jag which was rear-ended by a Triumph 2000. We were all ok (even with no head-rests in those days) even though the front of the Triumph was a right mess. The Jag had 2 small dents in the over-riders, which we thought was funny at the time, though it later turned out the chassis was bent.........
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werent trying to get away from jack reagan were you madux?
ps your nicked my son
edit o=a
Edited by bell boy on 03/05/2009 at 15:51
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