There are many misconceptions in the mind of the public concerning accidents. For instance, you can be seriously injured in a motor vehicle accident where the vehicle has no physical damage. This is especially true with sport utility vehicles. On January 9, 2006 the New York Times had an article entitled “Pickups and S.U.V.’ s do poorly in whiplash tests.” See Link (Portions of that article are repeated here exactly as it was written). “New crash test results show that four of every five new sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks do not adequately protect occupants from whiplash in low speed rear-end collisions.”

The study was released on January 8, 2006 from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, “People see S.U.V.’s and they think of them as being much safer cars” said Adrian Lund, president of the institute. “Certainly with regard to head restraints, what our study is showing is many of them don’t provide good protection from whiplash, which you might expect.”

“The insurance institute conducted a similar study of cars last year and found that most did not do a good job of preventing whiplash. That study examined 97 types of head restraints and cars sold in the United States, and concluded that three-fourths provided either poor or marginal protection.”

“Rear end collisions are among the most common accidents. The insurance institute estimates that at least 2 million occur each year and account for more than $8.5 billion in insurance claims. These kinds of crashes occur all the time. We’re seeing a lot of unnecessary injuries, so we’d like to see these vehicles do a better job of protecting necks, Mr. Lund added.”

Misconceptions almost always work in favor of big insurance companies and against the individual fighting with his or her claim. There are constant ads by them showing “you’re in good hands” or they are “on your side” or “like a good neighbor, they are there.” But you can ask anyone who has suffered in an accident and litigation and they will tell you otherwise.