Dallas, Texas, May 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Vehicle accidents can cause disabling and fatal physical injuries but can also leave victims with emotional and psychological problems. Violent, traumatic accidents could leave tens of thousands of survivors in Texas with emotional scars that may take years to heal.

“Emotional and psychological effects from an accident can be just as crippling as physical injuries,” said Greg Marks, a partner in the firm of Guajardo & Marks, a personal injury law firm based in Dallas. “It’s an impact most people don’t anticipate or understand.”

Several recent accidents involving Texans could leave survivors in need of psychological help, including these two bus crashes:

• Up to twenty people were seriously injured and one was killed in a bus crash in Alabama in March. Passengers were involved in a school band, coming home to Channelview near the Houston area from Walt Disney World. The driver was killed and about three dozen people were sent to local hospitals from the scene.
• A Greyhound  bus crash in Fort Worth in April sent six of forty passengers, along with two other people, to local hospitals. The bus was travelling from Abilene to Dallas when the accident on I-30 occurred in the early morning.

If you survived a violent vehicle accident, there’s a good chance you may suffer long-term emotional and psychological effects. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a condition popularly associated with those surviving combat, but it can also affect those who have gone through a traumatic vehicle collision, an assault or workplace confrontations.

A vehicle accident may take only a few moments, but victims could relive it countless times, for years to come. The person may suffer flashbacks, nightmares and anxiety attacks soon after the accident or months or years afterward. The condition may become so debilitating that the person’s relationships could be affected and employment could be lost.

Motor vehicle accidents are the traumatic event most commonly experienced by men in the U.S. (25%) and the second most common experienced by women (13%), according to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Studies of the general population have found that about 9% of vehicle accident survivors develop PTSD.

There were 265,076 people injured in vehicle accidents in Texas in 2016, according to the state Department of Transportation, so there could be at least 24,000 people coping with PTSD due to these crashes. They may also be suffering from depression, anxiety and fear of driving.

“Just because an injury can’t be shown on an X-ray, CT scan or MRI doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Many of our clients have suffered serious emotional harm because of the trauma they’ve endured. It’s not something to be taken lightly,” Marks said.