Myrtle Beach attracts millions of tourists to South Carolina each year. Whether on vacation or going about their daily lives, people in cars and trucks, on motorcycles, and on foot all converge on the Grand Strand.
You cannot control careless drivers who disregard Myrtle Beach speed limits and traffic laws, nor those who are distracted by the beach town’s sights and sounds when they should be focusing on the road. However, when a driver’s carelessness or negligence causes you serious injuries, you can control how to respond.
To hold the negligent driver fully accountable after a car crash, you need an experienced Myrtle Beach car accident lawyer whose guidance you can trust and who cares about you, not just their paycheck. Our Myrtle Beach car accident attorneys at Joye Law Firm are ready to help. Our injury attorneys have more than 300 years of combined legal experience, and we treat all our clients with the compassion and respect they deserve.
Our goal is to help you recover full compensation for the injuries and losses wrongly inflicted upon you and to help you put your accident behind you.
During a free, no-obligation consultation, we will listen carefully to your concerns and explain your legal options and how we can help. Contact us now at (888) 324-3100 or online if you are facing medical expenses due to car accident injuries someone else has caused.
Car Accident Statistics for Myrtle Beach
Horry County, which includes Myrtle Beach, has some of the highest counts of motor vehicle accidents in South Carolina. Statistics compiled by the South Carolina Department of Public Safety show that the S.C. Highway Patrol investigated 64 traffic fatalities in Horry County in 2023, a number topped only by much larger Greenville, Charleston, and Spartanburg counties.
Horry County traffic deaths in 2023 accounted for 6.4% of the state’s total 997 traffic fatalities. As recently as 2019, Horry County had the highest number of traffic deaths in the state, with 61 – 8% of the state’s total.
The types of motor vehicle accidents you are likely to encounter in the Myrtle Beach area that Joye Law Firm can help you with include:
- Drunk driving accidents
- Distracted driving accidents
- Drowsy driving accidents
- Rear-end collisions
- Side-impact or T-bone collisions
- Sideswipe collisions
- Head-on collisions
- Accidents involving motorcycles
- Pedestrian accidents
Drunk driving, distracted driving, and drowsy driving are more common in tourist areas such as Myrtle Beach.
Vacationers who are partying in Myrtle Beach sometimes get behind the wheel while impaired and cause preventable, drug or alcohol-related accidents. Other drivers pay more attention to what is happening on the Grand Strand’s sidewalks than on the road ahead, which causes distracted driving accidents.
Drunk, distracted, and drowsy drivers jeopardize the safety of everyone they encounter. They should be held accountable for the accidents and injuries they cause. A personal injury lawyer at Joye Law Firm can help you understand your rights and hold the at-fault driver financially responsible for your injuries.
Common Car Crash Injuries in Myrtle Beach
People injured in car accidents often sustain injuries by being slammed against a safety restraint such as a seatbelt shoulder strap or the car’s hard interior surfaces such as the steering wheel, dashboard, or door panels. The rapid deployment of airbags during a collision also can cause injuries. Meanwhile, a driver or passenger not wearing seatbelts can be thrown into the windshield or ejected from the vehicle, resulting in serious and even fatal injuries.
Among the most common car accident injuries are:
- Head injuries and traumatic brain injury (TBI): A blow, violent jolt, or penetrating injury to the head can cause bruising, tearing, bleeding, or other brain damage. A concussion is a mild TBI that usually heals over a few weeks. A severe TBI can cause a variety of long-lasting or debilitating problems.
- Neck injuries and whiplash: Whiplash is a traumatic injury to neck muscles, ligaments, and spinal disks that happens when the head is forced to move backward and then suddenly snap forward, such as by the force of the impact in a car crash. Rear-end collisions are the most common cause of whiplash injuries. A whiplash patient may suffer chronic pain and problems with memory, concentration, and sleep.
- Back injuries: A sudden blow to the back, or accidents that cause awkward bending or twisting of the spine, can damage vertebrae, spinal disks, or the spinal cord. A spinal cord injury that tears the spinal cord can cause loss of function or paralysis in one or more limbs (paraplegia) or over larger portions of the victim’s body (tetraplegia or quadriplegia).
- Broken bones: Fractures, such as broken arms, legs, collarbones, or ribs are frequent injuries suffered from the type of blunt-force trauma experienced in car crashes. Often people with simple fractures typically heal in six to eight weeks in a cast and may have difficulty working or performing basic tasks until they do. More complex bone fractures may require surgery and entail lengthy physical therapy.
- Internal organ injuries: The impact of being slammed against the steering wheel or dashboard in a car crash can fracture the sternum and ribs, rupture or tear the diaphragm (the muscle below the lungs that aids respiration), or injure the liver, spleen, kidneys, or other internal organs. Fractured ribs that become displaced can puncture the lungs or tear into internal organs. Injuries to internal organs may require surgery.
- Cuts: Minor cuts are soft tissue injuries that often heal quickly. Deep cuts, however, can damage deep muscle tissue or internal organs and pose a severe risk of blood loss and infection. Extensive blood loss from serious lacerations can cause the victim to go into shock. Cuts and bruises to the eyes can even result in permanent vision loss.
- Burns: Car accident victims may be burned by contact with hot parts of the vehicle, escaping liquids or steam, smoke, or flames in a serious crash. Burns are extremely painful and can cause deep tissue damage. Burn injuries can be fatal or require years of expensive treatment. In addition to injury from contact with fire or extreme heat, inhaling smoke from a car fire can cause lung damage.
- Facial Injuries: A driver or passenger who is slammed against the vehicle’s interior structure in a crash or who is struck by broken glass or metal shards may suffer facial cuts that cause scarring and disfigurement. Even the force of an inflating airbag could break a person’s jaw or other facial bones or cause severe bruising.
