When an incident occurs, it takes expertise for first responders to know the person who could have caused it. This skill is not limited to determining who the at-fault party could be. It can also be used to determine the kind of injury the incident victims must have faced based on the site of the incident, their positions, and the state in which everything has been wrecked. These observations help to determine the cause of injury and, therefore, the proportion of harm that should be expected. This is the mechanism of injury.
The mechanism of injury describes how a physical injury happened. This can be a fall from a height, ground-level fall, high- or low-speed motor vehicle accident, ejection from a vehicle, or vehicle rollover. It is used to calculate the forces associated with trauma and, consequently, the possible severity of wounds, fractures, and internal organ damage that a patient may experience due to the injury.
Consequently, a mechanism of injury video (also known as a “motor vehicle accident” video) shows how an accident happened. It helps lawyers explain the events leading up to the crash in court.
Why Do You Need Mechanism of Injury Videos?
In order to win a case, a lawyer needs to prove that his client was not at fault for the accident. This means showing that the other driver was negligent or that the car was defective. To do so, they must show what caused the accident.
The need for a mechanism of injury video cannot be overemphasized. Their need and usefulness are embedded in their unique scientific functions.
The mechanism of injury deals with the fundamental law of motion. This posits that energy cannot be created or destroyed but can change form or be absorbed. Accordingly, motion is caused by the body’s absorption of energy.
Therefore, the site’s layout on an incident is used to determine the motions in place and the impact it would have on the victims based on their location on the site.
Aside from the energy absorption, the likely force must also be considered. Thus, the impact of such a force can be determined. In determining the mechanism of injury, the force must be considered in relation to speed, size, and direction.
What the interactions of these scientific principles reveal aids in developing a treatment plan and goals by assisting professionals in determining the severity of an injury, supports clinical observations for medical doctors for diagnostics, differential diagnosis, and other therapies, manages clinical development, identifies clinical outliers, and aids payors in mapping out injuries that are compensable.
What Are Mechanisms of Injury Videos Used For?
A mechanism of injury (MOI) video is used by lawyers to demonstrate how the accident occurred. It shows the vehicle involved in the crash, the road where the crash happened, and the surrounding area.
MOIs are also used to explain why the accident occurred. For example, if a car rear-ended another one, the MOI would show the point of impact and the damage done to both vehicles.
Other than car crashes, the mechanism of injury video helps to showcase the type of mechanism and its interaction in the environment where it occurred.
Here are some of the mechanisms of injury:
Deceleration traumas
Deceleration traumas describe how a person comes to a halt after being hit or falling. This might happen slowly, lowering the chance of harm, or suddenly, which is worse.
Every incident has multiple impacts. A traffic accident is a typical example. The first impact happens when one car collides with another. The second is when the patient collides with the seatbelt. Consequently, the third is when the client’s internal organs collide with their abdominal wall.
The forces are transferred from one impact to the next, and each one occurs at the same pace as the first. Internal organs could be ripped, ruptured, or damaged in the above-case scenario.
All of these can result in significant internal bleeding that might not be apparent during a primary survey. Due to this, it is crucial to examine the patient’s history, comprehend what has happened to them, and take any possible injuries into account.
Rotational forces
This occurs when a patient has an impact that causes them to turn abruptly upside down. By twisting the head more slowly than the body, these pressures can frequently have a shearing effect. It may result in spinal injury.
These shearing pressures, which pull blood vessels or organs away from fixed points or twist and stretch them, can also impact internal organs and cause them to rupture.
Car accidents when the car flips over or spins are typical examples of rotational pressures, such as falls from horses, motorcycles, or bicycles, where the patient may twist as they fall, twist upon impact with, or twist after striking the ground.
Blunt injury
Blunt trauma occurs when an object strikes a person but does not puncture the skin. Accidents involving motor vehicles are common, such as assaults, falls from horses, motorbikes, and bicycles, collisions between cars and pedestrians, or side-impact accidents.
The “blunt” object can be anything, including a vehicle, the ground, a fence post, a set of bicycle handlebars, or, in the case of an assault, a baseball bat.
The force of blunt trauma moves internal organs aside, squashing them into a smaller space. The organs could rupture or rip as a result of this. Everything goes back to normal once the blunt item releases its force. This is referred to as temporary cavitation.
- Penetrating trauma
When something penetrates the skin, it results in penetrating trauma. The sharp object can be a knife, a railing on a fence, a bullet, or anything else.
A sharp item can rip through tissues and organs, leaving a permanent hole inside the body. This effect is referred to as permanent cavitation.
How Can Mechanism of Injury Videos Help Your Clients?
MOIs help the court understand what happened during the accident. They also provide evidence to support claims against insurance companies. In addition, they can help attorneys win settlements and verdicts.
Most times, these motions and interactions of forces can be too complex for your client to accurately describe, sometimes for want of words or due to the non-graphic representation of the facts.
With the mechanism of injury video, however, your client will have the confidence and reassurance that their case will be rightly heard and seen in court.
If a mechanism of injury video is done right, the jury will gain insight into the intricacies of the incident and the injuries sustained by the plaintiff.
Conclusion
Mechanism of injury videos is a scientific outlook on injuries to accurately showcase the injuries sustained by persons after an incident. With this video, obscurity, as regards the facts of the incident, is erased, accurately painting the faulty party.
Connecting with a legal animation company like Fox-AE is essential to creating a precise and efficient mechanism of injury videos.
Fox-AE is an engineering studio experienced in creating various mechanisms of injury videos tailored around different subject matters such as car crashes, defective products, dangerous premises, and assault.
