Types of Wrist Injuries Commonly Caused by Fort Worth Car Accidents

Are you dealing with wrist pain after a car accident?

This may be a sign of a severe hand or wrist injury. Many Fort Worth, Texas crash victims who suffered these injuries may be eligible for compensation, as the other driver may have been negligent. That means his or her insurance company could be held liable for the cost of your medical care and other damages.

The Fort Worth car accident lawyers at Anderson & Cummings have decades of experience securing compensation for car crash victims, whether through insurance settlements or courtroom verdicts. An initial consultation is free and there are no upfront costs to hire us.

Below, we have created a comprehensive guide to wrist pain from car accidents, covering the common types of injuries, symptoms and treatment options, along with legal options and tips on preventing wrist damage in a collision. After researching your injury, it is a good idea to review your legal options with a licensed attorney.

Have post-crash wrist pain? Call our Fort Worth attorneys today: (817) 920-9000.

What Causes Hand and Wrist Injuries in Fort Worth Auto Accidents?

Many people do not associate hand and wrist injuries with car accidents, but they are quite common. Your hands and wrists are in a vulnerable position during a collision, even if the crash happens at a relatively slow speed.

These are some of the most frequent causes of wrist or hand injuries in Texas car collisions:

• Steering wheel impact: In a frontal collision, the driver’s hands and wrists can be crushed or twisted against the steering wheel.
• Airbag deployment: While airbags save lives, their rapid inflation can cause abrasions, burns or fractures to the hands and wrists.
• Dashboard contact: The front seat passenger’s hands could forcefully strike the dashboard, causing injury.
• Window or door impact: Side-impact collisions can cause your hands to slam against windows or door panels.
• Bracing for impact: in the seconds before the crash, or even while the crash is occurring, you might brace your hands against the side or ceiling of your car. This puts intense pressure on the bones, tendons and ligaments in your hands and wrists. Instinctively extending your arms to brace for impact can cause the force of the crash to transmit through the hands and wrists.
• Flying debris: Loose objects in the car become projectiles during a crash.
• Entrapment: Hands or wrists may become trapped in crumpling metal or between seats during the accident.
• Hyperextension: Sudden, forceful movements can cause ligaments and tendons to stretch beyond their normal range.
• Cuts from broken glass: Shattered windshields or windows can cause lacerations to exposed hands.
• Throwing your hands up during the collision: This can cause your hands or wrists to crash into the airbag, dashboard, window, steering wheel, or other objects or parts of the interior of the vehicle.
• Gripping the inside of the steering wheel: If the steering wheel spins during the crash, your hands could get caught and violently spun around, causing significant injury.

The severity of these injuries often depends on factors such as the speed of impact, the angle of collision, and whether safety devices like seatbelts were properly used. Proper hand positioning on the steering wheel (nine and three o’clock) can help reduce the risk of severe injuries to your hands or wrists.

Infographic: Bones of the Hand

What You Should Know About the Anatomy of the Wrist

The wrist is a complex joint connecting the forearm to the hand. It consists of:

• Eight small carpal bones arranged in two rows
• Three separate joints: radiocarpal, ulnocarpal and distal radioulnar
• Ligaments that bind these bones together and protect nerves
• Tendons that connect muscles to bones, enabling movement
• The distal ends of the radius and ulna (forearm bones)
• Articular cartilage covering bone surfaces
• Synovial fluid for lubrication
• Carpal tunnel where all the nerves, bones and ligaments converge
• Median nerve that allows the brain to control movement in your forearm and hand

This intricate structure allows for a wide range of motion, including flexion, extension and rotation. However, this complexity also makes the wrist vulnerable to injury in car accidents.

What is the Anatomy of the Hand?

Each one of your hands is composed of:

• 27 bones: 14 phalanges (finger bones), five metacarpals and eight carpals
• Metacarpals connect fingers to the rest of your hand
• The carpal bones join your wrist and hand
• Numerous ligaments connecting these bones
• Tendons extending from forearm muscles
• Intrinsic muscles within the hand itself
• A network of nerves for sensation and motor control
• Blood vessels supplying blood to tissues

This structure allows for precise movements and grip strength.

8 Types of Injuries That Could Cause Wrist Pain After a Crash

Texas car accidents can cause a wide variety of hand and wrist injuries, from bruises and ligament inflammation to fractures, dislocations and tendonitis.

Here are nine types of wrist and hand injuries you could suffer in a collision with another vehicle:

Sprained Wrist

A wrist sprain occurs when the ligaments in the wrist stretch or tear due to excessive force. The impact of a car accidents can force the wrist into an unnatural position, causing the ligaments to stretch beyond their normal range. For example, this could happen during a rear-end crash when your hands a thrust forward.

Wrist sprains are given one of three grades, based on severity:

• Grade 1: Mild stretching of ligaments with microscopic tearing. Symptoms include minimal swelling and pain, and you should still have full functionality in the joint.
• Grade 2: This involves partial tearing of ligaments. You are likely to experience moderate pain, swelling and some loss of function. The joint may also feel unstable.
• Grade 3: This is reserved for a complete ligament tear. Common symptoms include severe pain, significant swelling and major loss of function. You are going to notice significant instability in the joint. This injury can be so severe that the ligament pulls small pieces of bone off. This is known as an avulsion fracture.

Symptoms of a Wrist Sprain

• Pain and tenderness
• Swelling around the wrist
• Bruising
• Limited range of motion
• Difficulty gripping objects
• Feeling a pop in your wrist during the crash

Treatment

Resting the wrist, applying ice, and elevating the arm can help manage symptoms. Severe sprains may require immobilization with a splint or brace. In some cases, physical therapy may be needed to restore function. Grade three sprains may require surgery. Grade one and two sprains may heal on their own.

Wrist Fractures

A wrist fracture is a break in one or more of the bones in the wrist, such as the radius or ulna. The force from a car accident can cause these bones to crack or shatter. The most common types are distal radius fractures and scaphoid fractures.

These injuries may be more likely to happen in a T-bone crash. Your arm could get thrown into the door, causing a distal radius fracture.

Symptoms

• Intense pain at the site of the fracture
• Swelling and bruising
• Deformity or visible bone protrusion
• Inability to move the wrist or hand
• Numbness or tingling in the fingers
• Grinding feeling when you move the wrist, also known as crepitus
• Struggling to turn doorknobs with the affected hand

Treatment

Wrist fractures often require immobilization with a cast or splint. Severe fractures might need surgical intervention to realign and secure the bones. Rehabilitation is essential for restoring full function to your wrist.

Wrist Dislocations

A wrist dislocation happens when the bones in the wrist are forced out of their normal alignment. This injury can occur when the wrist is twisted or bent forcefully during an accident.

Crash victims could dislocate the following joints during a crash:

• Radiocarpal joint, which is between the first set of carpal bones and your forearm; this could get dislocated in a rollover collision
• Intercarpal joints, which are located between your carpal bones
• The carpometacarpal joints between the metacarpals and carpal bones

Symptoms

• Severe pain at the wrist joint
• Swelling and bruising
• Obvious deformity or irregular shape
• Limited or no movement of the wrist
• Tingling or numbness caused by compression of nerves
• Bluish, cold skin caused by impaired blood flow

Treatment

Dislocated wrists usually need to be realigned, often requiring manual manipulation by a healthcare professional. Following realignment, immobilization with a splint or cast is necessary. Physical therapy may be needed to regain full motion.

Tendon Injuries

Tendon injuries occur when the tendons that connect muscles to bones in the wrist are damaged. Car accidents can cause these tendons to tear or rupture, particularly if the wrist is forcibly extended or flexed. Tendons are also like to suffer damage if they are crushed or lacerated by broken glass or sharp metal.

Some examples of car accident tendon injuries include:

• Flexor tendon tears
• Extensor tendon tears

Symptoms

• Pain and swelling in the wrist or forearm
• Difficulty moving the wrist or fingers
• Weakness in the grip
• Popping or snapping sound when you move your wrist
• Tenderness along the tendons
• Inability to straighten or bend your fingers

Treatment

Treatment may involve rest, ice, and anti-inflammatory medications. Severe cases might require surgical repair of the tendons, followed by a period of immobilization and rehabilitation.

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS) is a condition where the median nerve, which runs through the wrist, becomes compressed. While not always directly caused by car accidents, trauma to the wrist can exacerbate or trigger CTS symptoms. Sometimes a fracture can trigger CTS.

Symptoms

• Numbness or tingling in the fingers or hand
• Pain in the wrist or hand, especially at night
• Weakness in the hand or difficulty with fine motor tasks
• Clumsiness in hand movements
• More pronounced symptoms early in the morning or at night

Treatment

Mild cases of CTS may be managed with rest and wrist splinting. More severe cases might require corticosteroid injections or surgery to relieve pressure on the median nerve.

Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS)

Complex Regional Pain Syndrome is a chronic pain condition that can develop after a wrist injury. It is characterized by severe, persistent pain that is disproportionate to the initial injury and may involve changes in skin color, temperature and swelling.

CRPS can be caused by nerve damage from the crash, or prolonged immobilization during treatment and rehabilitation.

Symptoms

• Persistent, burning pain in the wrist
• Swelling and changes in skin color or temperature
• Stiffness and decreased range of motion
• Sensitivity to touch
• Muscle spasms

Treatment

CRPS treatment often involves a multidisciplinary approach, including pain management, physical therapy, and sometimes medications or nerve blocks. Early diagnosis and treatment are crucial for better outcomes.

Surface Injuries

There are a variety of injuries that often accompany one of the other injuries on this list. For instance, you could have bruising around a dislocated joint or broken bone. You could also suffer abrasions that scrape your skin or lacerations caused by sharp objects. Projectiles inside your vehicle could also pierce the skin, causing a puncture wound.

Symptoms

• Discoloration of your skin from bruising
• Excessive bleeding from a deep cut or puncture wound
• Loose skin caused by an abrasion

Treatment

Some surface injuries simply need to be cleaned up and covered while they heal. You need to change the wound dressing regularly and doctors may recommend ointment to help speed up the healing process and reduce scarring. Some puncture wounds and lacerations may require stitches.

Fractured Fingers

Your fingers contain delicate bones that can be easily broken with enough force. This force can often occur in a car crash. Your fingers could get crushed or slammed against something hard enough to cause them to break.

Symptoms

• Intense pain in the affected finger
• Black and blue appearance of the skin around the fracture site
• Inability to move the finger

Treatment

Doctors will need to set the bone and immobilize the finger to allow it to heal. However, severe fractures may require surgery, such as if part of the bone breaks off.

When to Seek Medical Help for Wrist Injuries After a Car Accident

You should always seek medical treatment immediately, no matter how mild your symptoms are. Some wrist injuries cause minor symptoms that get progressively worse over time, particularly if the injury is not treated immediately.

Doctors can run tests, including x-rays and MRI scans, to determine the true extent of your hand and wrist injuries. This helps them to determine all the treatments you need so you can make the best recovery possible, given your diagnosis.

In some cases, you will simply need to put ice on the injury and keep it elevated to allow it to heal over time. In other cases, you will need to immobilize the injury with a splint or keep it in a cast for weeks or months.

However, if you have a severe injury, you may need multiple surgeries and months of rehabilitation. Unfortunately, the longer your treatment lasts, the more expensive it becomes.

A severe injury will also make everyday life much more difficult because you use your wrists and hands for so many tasks each day, from dressing, showering and grooming to eating, driving and typing.

Your injury could also make it more difficult to do your job, particularly if you do manual or skilled labor or jobs where you do a lot of typing. In some cases, you will have to work fewer hours and in others you will not be able to work at all.

These are all reasons why you need to contact a lawyer if you experience wrist pain after a car accident in Fort Worth. The attorneys at our firm can explore your legal options and aggressively pursue full compensation for the many effects of your injuries. We know you need more than just compensation for medical bills. We also seek compensation for the many other ways an injury affects your life, including your employment.

Preventing Wrist Injuries During a Car Accident

Although wrist injuries are a common consequence of car accidents, there are several preventive measures you can take to reduce your risk of such injuries. Understanding and implementing these safety tips can help safeguard your hands and wrists in the event of a collision.

1. Proper Seat Positioning

Ensure your seat is adjusted to support your body properly. Your seat should be positioned so that you can comfortably reach the steering wheel without overstretching or having to lean forward. Proper positioning not only maintains a stable posture, but also reduces the risk of injury during a sudden impact.

2. Correct Seatbelt Usage

Wearing your seatbelt correctly is crucial in preventing injuries. The lap belt should fit snugly across your hips, not your abdomen, and the shoulder belt should cross your chest and shoulder. Proper seatbelt use helps distribute the force of impact more evenly across your body, which can lessen the intensity of injuries, including those to your wrists.

3. Avoid Bracing with Your Hands

During a collision, instinct may lead you to brace yourself with your hands against hard surfaces like the dashboard or window. Instead, try to keep your hands and arms relaxed and close to your body. Bracing can lead to severe wrist injuries if the impact forces your hands into an unnatural position.

4. Use Airbags Effectively

Ensure that your car’s airbags are properly maintained and functional. Airbags are designed to cushion the impact and reduce injury severity. Position your hands on the steering wheel at the recommended nine and three o’clock positions to minimize the risk of your wrists being damaged if the airbag deploys.

5. Secure Loose Items

Be mindful of all the loose items you have in your car make sure they are securely stored. Loose objects can become dangerous projectiles in a crash, potentially causing injuries to your wrists or other body parts. Use appropriate storage compartments to minimize the risk of injury from flying debris.

By following these preventive measures, you can significantly reduce the risk of wrist injuries during a car accident and enhance your overall safety on the road.

Contact an Accomplished Attorney From Our Firm

If you have wrist pain after a car accident in the Fort Worth area, we are prepared to help you with the legal process. We are committed to securing full compensation for all your medical costs, lost wages, pain and suffering, and other damages you may be dealing with.

Compensation cannot change what happened, but it can pay for all past and future medical care for your injuries, and help you better manage daily life with your physical limitations.

Our experienced attorneys can review your claim in a free legal consultation and inform you of all your potential options. There are no fees unless we win.

Call (817) 920-9000 or complete a Free Case Evaluation form.