Low Impact Collisions, Excessive Claims, And Biomechanical Experts

(January 2022) - Across the United States, an increasing number of low impact collisions are ending up in litigation, with plaintiffs frequently alleging in excess of $50,000 in past medical expenses and often with surgical recommendations. Claims that used to have an emergency room visit and a little chiropractic treatment now have multiple epidural steroid injections, MRIs, and spinal fusion surgery recommendations. To defend this new crop of low impact/high medical claims, the proper use of a good biomechanical expert is an effective way to show the jury the severity of the impact.

Impact severity is typically measured using the "Delta-V," which is the change in velocity. There have been cases involving a Delta-V as low 1.1 mph with claims of future medical expenses in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Several studies over the years have measured the physical responses in adults using different changes in velocity in frontal impacts, as illustrated in the