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What Head Injuries Are Caused by Head-on Car Accidents?

The impact and flying debris resulting from a head-on car accident can cause a variety of head injuries, ranging from facial lacerations and fractures, to life threatening brain injuries. Seat belts and airbags are your best protection against head injuries in a collision. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates in 2007, seat belts and air bags saved 17,935 lives.

  1. Concussion

    • The National Institutes of Health (NIH) define a concussion as a brain injury that can impair the victim's memory, judgment, coordination and speech. Severe symptoms which require immediate medical attention, include convulsions and lapsing into a coma. A head-on collision that causes a concussion may also cause spinal injuries, so rescuers must move a concussion victim with extreme care. A physician may perform a CT scan, EEG or MRI to determine if a patient has suffered a concussion. Patients with mild concussions are prescribed rest and acetaminophen for residual headaches while patients with more severe concussions require hospitalization.

    Facial Trauma

    • The University of Wisconsin reports approximately 70 percent of car accidents result in facial injuries and approximately 60 to 70 percent of these injuries involve orbital bone injury. The University of California indicates auto accidents frequently result in facial soft tissue damage. Open wounds must be cleaned and sutures may be needed to control bleeding. If the victim's facial trauma is disfiguring, a plastic surgeon may be able to repair the damage by performing reconstructive surgery.

    Skull Fracture

    • The NIH reports that the impact from a head-on car accident can cause a skull fracture, which can cause direct neurological damage from skull fragments that penetrate the brain, or indirect damage by causing a blood clot formation beneath the skull. Victims of skull fractures may have clear or bloody fluid flowing from their ears or nose, slurred speech, nausea or convulsions. Rescuers must stabilize the victim's head and neck before the victim can be safely moved. Types of skull fractures include linear fractures in which the skull is cracked, but otherwise intact, and depressed skull fractures, in which skull fragments are driven into the brain.

    Subarachnoid Hemorrhage

    • A subarachnoid hemorrhage is characterized by bleeding between the brain and the layer of membrane covering the brain. The New York Times reports these injuries are most frequently caused in young people by auto accidents. Victims experience sudden, severe headaches that are most intense toward the back of the head. Victims may immediately fall unconscious or may pass out within several hours of the headache's onset. Treatment for subarachnoid hemorrhages due to trauma is surgery to drain the blood that's putting pressure on the brain. The Merck Online Medical Library indicates permanent neurological damage is common even after successful surgery.

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