Car accidents are not exactly rare in the Buckeye State. In fact, the Ohio State Highway Patrol reports there were more than 290,000 crashes in the state in 2019.
During a crash, you may sustain a seemingly endless number of serious injuries, ranging from whiplash to spinal cord damage. If you have a car accident, you may also be vulnerable to three types of potentially life-altering burns.
Burns from fires
According to the National Fire Protection Association, there were an estimated 212,500 vehicle fires in the U.S. in 2018 alone. These fires resulted in 560 deaths and 1,500 injuries.
While your vehicle likely has many safety features both to prevent and to slow fires, a crash-related blaze may cause you to suffer burns to any part of your body.
Burns from chemicals
Even in a minor collision, your car’s airbags may deploy. When that happens, substances from the airbag’s deployment system may burn your face, eyes, throat or lungs.
The same is true for chemicals and fluids inside your vehicle’s engine and other components. Likewise, the chemicals firefighters use to extinguish a vehicle fire may burn or otherwise irritate your skin.
Burns from friction
While heat and chemicals are common causes of accident-related burns, you may also sustain a friction burn in a crash. This type of burn happens when skin rubs against a surface. Friction from your car’s seat, seat belt and dashboard may damage your skin.
Similarly, if your skin slides across pavement, you may develop road rash. While road rash encompasses many different injuries, friction burns are a regular component of it.
