Trauma is a leading cause of traumatic brain injury (TBI) and must be considered by attorneys in the evaluation of all personal injury cases. Annually, an estimated 1.7 million traumatic brain injuries occur in the United States, resulting in an estimated 52,000 fatalities, 275,000 hospitalizations and 1.365 million individuals being treated and released from emergency departments, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
The leading causes of brain injury, in descending order, are falls (35.2 percent); motor vehicle accidents (17.3 percent); other forms of head contact (16.5 percent); and assaults (10 percent). Falls trigger half (50 percent) of the TBIs among children aged 0 to 14 years and 61 percent of all TBIs among adults aged 65 years and older. Motor vehicle crashes and traffic-related incidents are the second leading cause of TBI (17.3 percent) and result in the largest percentage of TBI-related deaths (31.8 percent) across all populations. The CDC estimates that about 75 percent of TBIs are concussions or other mild TBI.
