Minor Fender Benders: I'm not hurt or AM I?

Americans are involved in 1 auto accident for every 10 years of their life. I'm sure most of you have been in an accident at one point in your life time, but sometimes the most serious ones are when you think you haven't been injured. Whiplash injuries happen at low rates of speed as well as high speeds. During a research study performed by the orthopedic surgery section of the School of Medicine at Yale University. Automobiles involved in low impact collisions showed that an 8 mph car collision creates 2 G forces to the car, 4 G forces to the shoulder, and 5 G forces to the neck. The " law of conservation of linear momentum" is the mechanism by which the momentum from the force of crash impact is transferred along a linear plane, conserved and absorbed by the passenger in the car. To observers of car crashes this explains why and how the energy from two vehicles colliding is transferred from the bumper to the head and neck of the vehicle occupants. Often this results in injury to the vehicle occupants without damage to the vehicles. Energy is never lost, it is just transferred. A study written in the "Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery" states that the less a car is wrecked, the more forces are directed to the occupants, thus injuries can be more severe at low speeds.  I see patients everyday that were in an accident years ago but never received any treatment. When they present to my office years later the result is that much more damage is produced with a much greater recovery period due to the time lapsed. If you have been in an auto accident please for your own sake be checked by a physician to be sure you will not have future problems.