Is Bracing for Impact in a Car Accident a Good Idea?

Your knuckles tighten around the wheel, eyes wide, heart pounding. Instinct screams, “Brace for impact!” You lock your elbows and stiffen your neck a split‑second before the crunch.

That reflex feels smart, but physics disagrees. Depending on speed, posture, and the protection already built into your car, bracing for a car accident can turn a survivable collision into months of pain, surgeries, and battles with an insurance adjuster.

Let’s look at what really happens inside the cabin when you tense up, why modern safety systems favor a relaxed position, and how North Dakota negligence law sees your split‑second choices.

Reflexes fight physics

In a freeze‑frame, bracing makes sense. If you’re standing and someone shoves you, planting your feet helps you stay upright. Cars move differently. Momentum keeps both body and vehicle hurling forward even after your brain shouts stop.

Seat belts and airbags are designed for a relaxed, seated passenger. They stretch and cushion just enough to spread impact forces across the strongest bones. When arms are locked and neck muscles rigid, those forces concentrate on fragile joints.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration notes that most serious upper‑extremity injuries occur when occupants punch against an inflating bag or dashboard surface. In other words, your arms become sacrificial bumpers that your car was never designed for.

Injuries that bracing can cause

Emergency physicians see the pattern. Drivers who braced often suffer bilateral wrist fractures from punching airbags, rotator cuff tears from locked shoulders, and severe whiplash because tensed neck muscles snap back like overstretched elastic.

Stiff‑legged passengers may slam knees into dashboards, shattering patellas. Rigid torsos prevent seat belts from riding low on the hips, so force presses into soft abdominal organs instead of sturdy pelvic bones. In a worst-case scenario, bracing for an impact could result in death.

Orthopedists warn that knee fractures often accompany hidden ligament damage inside the joint. Early MRI scans help prove that your lingering limp isn’t just age catching up with you, but a direct consequence of bracing during the crash.

Even if fractures heal, chronic nerve pain and limited range of motion can linger, reducing your quality of life and the value of any settlement you might pursue.

Can bracing ever help?

Although experts agree you shouldn’t go limp like a rag doll, selective tension can matter. Placing both hands flat on the steering wheel at nine and three, head back against the headrest and feet flat helps seat belts and airbags work as intended.

Pilots practice the “brace position” because airline seats lack shoulder belts, but modern cars already cradle you. Imitating an airline brace in a sedan–head bent to knees–can position the spine for catastrophic compression on landing.

Tensing core muscles may guard the spine, much like weightlifters brace before a deadlift, but that benefit disappears if your shoulders are locked straight and knees jammed under the wheel.

What to do instead

Situational awareness is still your best defense. Leave room, scan mirrors, and adjust your speed to road conditions. If a crash becomes inevitable then exhale, keep your knees bent, let the headrest cradle your skull, and trust the belt and bag combo.

If you have time, remove hard objects from your lap, and never twist sideways to shield a child. Car seats and boosters exist because even the strongest parent’s arms cannot outmuscle the kinetic energy of a car accident.

Teaching teenage drivers to keep a calm posture pays dividends. They are statistically more likely to overreact, yank the wheel, or thrust their arms forward, multiplying the forces that echo through still‑developing bones and soft tissues.

North Dakota’s modified comparative fault system

North Dakota follows a modified comparative fault rule. If a jury finds you more than 49 percent responsible for your injuries, you recover nothing. Defense lawyers may argue your decision to brace made matters worse, nudging your fault percentage upward. However, it’s unlikely that such a claim would hold much weight, given that bracing for a car accident is more of an involuntary reflex than a conscious decision.

How to protect your claim

Seek medical attention right away, even if adrenaline masks your pain. Early recording can connect the crash to your injuries before insurers can claim you exaggerated or got hurt later at home.

Tell doctors exactly how you were seated and whether you braced. Diagnostic imaging of wrists, shoulders, neck, and knees creates objective proof, countering the common defense that soft‑tissue pain is “just soreness.”

Preserve evidence at the scene. Photographs of deployed airbags, bent steering wheels, cracked dashboards, and seat belt bruising tell a story about force direction and body position.

If another driver caused the crash, report pain and limitations to your employer right away. Lost wages bolstered by work records increase your economic damages.

Damages available after a North Dakota car wreck

You may pursue medical bills, future treatment, physical therapy, lost income, diminished earning capacity, property damage, and non‑economic losses like pain and suffering, emotional distress, and loss of enjoyment of life.

Future treatment often becomes the largest line item. Since spinal fusion, arthroscopic shoulder repair, or knee replacement might not occur until years after settlement, expert life‑care planners translate today’s surgery orders into tomorrow’s dollar figures.

Why local experience matters

Each county in North Dakota has its own tempo. A lawyer who tries cases in Minot faces different jury pools than one in Fargo. Knowing local medical experts, repair shops, and courthouse routine shortens the runway to trial.

Insurance companies track which firms push for top dollar and which firms will fold. A reputation for courtroom toughness moves negotiations faster and often nets higher settlements.

The bottom line on bracing

Your survival instincts evolved for slipping on ice, not slamming into steel at 55 mph. A controlled, supported posture with belt snug, head back, knees loose–beats white‑knuckled rigidity every time.

Bottom line: stay loose enough to flow with engineered safety systems, yet deliberate enough to center yourself. Cars are built around predictable human biomechanics, and honoring that design saves bones, time, and money afterwards.

After a crash, the way you moved in that instant may become a talking point for the defense, but it should never rob you of fair compensation. Prompt care, thorough documentation, and skilled legal counsel level the field.

Let an Attorney Help

For more than forty years, Larson Law Injury & Accident Lawyers has stood guard for North Dakotans hurt by careless drivers, winning respect in Minot, Fargo, and Bismarck courtrooms. Let their certified civil trial team review your story today and fight for every dollar you deserve. Contact us today.