Blurred Vision After a Crash? What It Means for Your Legal Claims

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About every 71 seconds, a car accident occurs on a Texas road. And approximately every two minutes, someone suffers an injury from a car accident. Sometimes, their symptoms include blurred vision or vision problems, like vision loss, limited peripheral vision, flashes of light, or double vision.

Sometimes, people assume that these life-changing symptoms will go away on their own, but that’s not always true.

For example, our San Antonio car accident lawyers represented Priscilla, who was injured when another vehicle ran a stoplight. The collision caused her airbag to deploy, and her retina detached during the impact. Even with surgery, she was left with a permanent blind spot in the center of her eye that significantly obstructed her field of vision.

Vision loss, like Priscilla’s, can make it difficult to work and do the things you love. It can also lead to increased depression, anxiety, and other physical and emotional issues. When you’re facing an uncertain future due to a vision impairment, you deserve accountability.

In this article, our San Antonio car accident lawyers will discuss blurry vision after a car wreck and your legal options.

What Car Accident Injuries Can Cause Blurred Vision?

Head trauma and eye injuries can cause blurred vision and other vision problems. They can range from concussions to retinal detachment, corneal abrasions, and orbital fractures. Unfortunately, many of these conditions’ symptoms overlap. The most common include but are not limited to:

  • Blurred vision
  • Sensitivity to light or sound
  • Ringing in the ears
  • Changes in sense of smell
  • Headache
  • Dizziness
  • Nausea

If you are experiencing any of the above symptoms, don’t assume that they will go away on their own. Instead, seek medical attention immediately. Delaying treatment can result in permanent damage—and might complicate your personal injury claims later on.

Now, let’s explore some common car accident injuries than can cause blurred vision and vision loss.

Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI)

Brain trauma is common after car wrecks, and it often caused by rapid acceleration and deceleration of your body. This trauma can damage your brain’s sensitive tissues, stretching, ripping, and bruising them.

Sometimes, swelling in the brain can cause optic nerve damage. Other times, head injuries cause a vitreous hemorrhage, where your eye’s blood vessels to bleed into the jelly-like substance that fills your eye.

If you’re experiencing headache, ringing in the ears, dizziness, mental fogginess, or sensitivity to light or sound (in addition to your blurry vision), you might have a brain—and should immediately seek medical care.

Our office has built a reputation for its sophisticated handling of traumatic brain injury claims. Tom Crosley is a Brain Injury Association of American Preferred Attorney, recognizing his experience with complex TBI claims, including those involving vision problems.

RELATED: What Can I Expect After a TBI: A Recovery Timeline

Whiplash and Other Soft Tissue Injuries

Whiplash is a soft tissue injury caused by forceful, rapid back-and-forth movement of the neck, which are common in rear-end car accidents. It can cause neck pain, headache, blurred vision, other severe symptoms.

RELATED: Neck Pain vs. Concussion: What’s the Difference?

Retinal Detachment

Retinal detachment, like Priscilla’s, is rarer than traumatic brain injuries, but that doesn’t make it any less serious of an auto accident injury. When your retina detaches from the back of the eye, your eye doesn’t get the oxygen and nutrients it needs. Without immediate medical care, it can cause permanent damage to your eye.

Retinal injuries often cause these common symptoms:

  • Blurry vision
  • “Floaters” in your field of vision
  • Decreased peripheral vision (your vision to either side of where you’re directly looking)
  • Shadows in your field of vision
  • Flashes of light

Again, if you are experiencing any of these symptoms seek medical care. The sooner you see an eye doctor, the better.

Corneal Abrasions

Your cornea is a protective layer that surrounds your eye. During a crash, debris can scratch the cornea, causing pain, sensitivity to light, headache, and blurred vision.

Minor corneal abrasions typically heal in a few days, but more serious scratches and injuries can take much longer. And, if you don’t properly care for your eye, you might cause further damage due to infections or scarring.

How Much Is a Personal Injury Claim for Blurred Vision or Vision Loss Worth?

When you cannot see clearly, it can be difficult to work, tend to your family, and do the things you love. You’ll also need ongoing medical care—which can be costly. That’s why so many people consult with a car accident attorney after a wreck.

With help from an experienced injury lawyer, you might be able to recover compensation that covers your medical bills, wage loss, and other damages.

In Texas, personal injury damages fall into three categories:

  • Economic: Reimbursement of your medical expenses, lost income, property damage, and other financial losses associated with the crash
  • Non-economic: Compensation for your softer losses, like pain and suffering, emotional distress, and the loss of the ability to do hobbies and other activities
  • Punitive damages: Awarded by a judge or jury to punish a wrongdoer for highly reckless or intentional behavior

When your car accident lawyer calculates your case’s settlement, they will consider all these potential damages. (However, please note that punitive damages are not available in most cases.)

Additionally, your lawyer must consider how much insurance coverage applies to your claim. If the at-fault driver has minimum coverage, your attorney will look for other policies that will contribute to your case, like uninsured/underinsure motorist policies and PIP policies. They might also investigate other negligent parties, especially if an airbag or seatbelt contributed to your injuries.

Generally speaking, the more severe and long-lasting your injuries are, the more compensation you can demand. However, the insurance company will look for defenses, like contributory negligence, to weaken your claims.

If you would like a personalized assessment of your case’s settlement value, contact Crosley Law today. We offer free consultations, so you can get an honest, no-risk assessment of your case.

Crosley Law: San Antonio’s Trusted Car Accident and Brain Injury Lawyers

Crosley Law has built a reputation for our innovative strategies and commitment to our clients. Injuries from a car accident, like vision impairments and brain injuries, can be a traumatic experience, and the uncertainty of how you’ll make ends meet you while you recover can only worsen your stress.

We want to help. Our lawyers work closely with experts in construction, insurance coverage, trucking, and highway safety who can help juries understand which party is at fault. We also work with key experts in almost every major field of medicine, including neurosurgery, neurology, neuropsychology, cardiology, pulmonology, and more.

We offer free consultations as well as a “no-fee” policy. For more information, call us at 210-LAW-3000 | 210-529-3000 or complete our easy online form. If your injuries prevent you from coming to our office, we can conduct the meeting over the phone, by video conference, or even at your location.

The content provided here is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice on any subject.