What happens when you get a burn injury in a car accident? Learn how severity is classified and the long-term impact in accident cases.
Burn injuries are among the most severe outcomes of a car accident. They often require extensive medical treatment, leave permanent scarring, and can affect a person’s ability to work and function for years after the crash. Understanding how these injuries happen and what they typically involve can help someone make sense of what comes next.
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Common Causes of Burn Injuries in Car Accidents
Burns in a car accident don’t always come from an obvious fire. Several mechanisms show up repeatedly in serious crashes:
- Fuel system fires and explosions. A ruptured fuel tank or line can ignite on impact, especially in high-speed collisions.
- Airbag deployment burns. The rapid chemical reaction that inflates an airbag can produce heat and friction burns on the face, hands, and arms.
- Contact with hot surfaces. Exhaust systems, engine components, and radiators can reach high temperatures and cause burns if a person is trapped or thrown against them.
- Electrical fires. Damaged wiring, particularly in vehicles with complex electrical systems, can spark fires after a collision.
- Chemical burns. Battery acid, coolant, and other fluids released in a crash can cause chemical burns on contact with skin.
- Scalding from hoses or radiators. A ruptured coolant system can release scalding fluid or steam.
In some cases, a burn injury points to a defect in the vehicle itself, such as a fuel tank design that made a fire more likely, rather than simply the force of the collision.
How Burn Severity Is Classified
Burns are generally described in degrees based on how deep the damage goes:
- First-degree burns affect only the outer layer of skin and typically heal without lasting damage.
- Second-degree burns extend into deeper skin layers, often causing blistering, and may require ongoing wound care.
- Third-degree burns destroy both layers of skin and can damage underlying tissue, often requiring skin grafts.
- Fourth-degree burns extend into muscle, tendon, or bone and represent the most severe classification.
The degree of a burn is one factor among several, including the percentage of the body affected and the location of the burn, that influences how serious the long-term impact may be.
The Long-Term Impact of Burn Injuries
Burn injuries often continue affecting a person’s life well after the initial hospital stay:
- Extended medical treatment, including skin grafts, reconstructive surgery, and physical therapy
- Permanent scarring that can limit movement, particularly around joints
- Nerve damage, which may cause chronic pain or loss of sensation in the affected area
- Increased infection risk during the healing process, sometimes requiring repeat hospitalization
- Psychological effects, including anxiety, depression, or post-traumatic stress related to the accident and the person’s appearance
- Reduced ability to work, especially in physically demanding jobs or roles involving public interaction
Because recovery from a serious burn can span months or years, the full extent of the impact is often unclear at first, which is part of why these claims typically take longer to resolve than a straightforward injury claim.
Legal Considerations in Burn Injury Cases
Burn injury claims often involve more than one potentially liable party. Depending on the facts, that may include the other driver, a vehicle manufacturer if a defect contributed to the fire, or a company responsible for maintaining a commercial vehicle. Missouri follows a pure comparative fault rule, meaning you can often still recover compensation even if more than one party, including the injured person, shares responsibility for the accident.
Because these cases may involve a product defect claim in addition to a standard negligence claim, gathering and preserving evidence from the vehicle itself, when possible, often matters more than in a typical car accident case.
What to Do After a Burn Injury Accident
- Get emergency medical care immediately, even for burns that seem minor at first.
- Follow up with specialists such as a burn unit or plastic surgeon, since some burns worsen or reveal additional damage over the following days.
- Photograph the injury as it heals, since burns often change significantly over time.
- Keep records of every treatment, procedure, and missed workday connected to the injury.
- Avoid giving a recorded statement to an insurance adjuster before speaking with a lawyer.
Why Work With The Hoffmann Law Firm
Burn injury claims often require piecing together what happened mechanically, whether that’s a fuel system failure, an electrical fault, or simple impact forces, alongside the medical realities of a long recovery. The Hoffmann Law Firm has served St. Louis since 1998, and clients work directly with Attorney Christopher Hoffmann rather than being passed between staff.
As a locally owned Missouri firm, the team understands how to approach a claim that may involve both a negligence case and a potential product defect. Talk to a St. Louis burn injury lawyer. (314) 361-4242 – Free consultation.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Often, yes. Airbag-related burns are a recognized type of accident injury and may be part of a broader injury claim.
Some burns worsen over the following days, which is part of why prompt medical follow-up matters even when an injury initially looks minor.
It’s possible. Some burn injuries in car accidents are connected to a design or manufacturing issue, such as a fuel system that fails in a foreseeable way, rather than the collision alone.
Deadlines depend on the specifics of the case, so it’s best to have the facts reviewed as soon as possible rather than assume a general timeline applies.