When a car runs over a person’s head, the resulting injuries are among the most severe and devastating a human can endure. This catastrophic event involves an overwhelming application of force to a delicate and central part of the body. The consequences extend beyond immediate localized damage, impacting the body’s fundamental systems.
Understanding the Crushing Force
When a vehicle passes over a human head, immense weight and pressure are directly applied to the cranial structure. The car’s mass and speed combine to exert a rapid, overwhelming impact, causing immediate deformation of the skull, which is not designed to withstand such compressive loads. The brain, suspended within cerebrospinal fluid, experiences both translational and rotational forces. This sudden acceleration and deceleration can cause the brain to impact the inner walls of the skull, leading to bruising and tearing of delicate tissues and blood vessels.
Specific Head and Brain Trauma
The direct crushing force on the head results in various types of skull fractures. These include linear fractures (simple breaks), depressed fractures (bone fragments pushed inward), and compound fractures (break in bone and skin, increasing contamination risk). Basilar fractures occur at the base of the skull, affecting areas around the eyes, ears, nose, or neck. Diastatic fractures cause the widening of skull sutures, often seen in children.
Beyond the skull, the brain suffers extensive damage, including various forms of intracranial hemorrhage, or bleeding within the skull. These manifest as epidural hematomas (bleeding between the dura mater and skull), subdural hematomas (bleeding between the dura mater and brain), or intracerebral hemorrhages (bleeding within brain tissue). Such bleeding causes pressure to build up inside the skull, further compressing brain tissue. Diffuse axonal injury (DAI) is a common and serious consequence, where the brain’s connective nerve fibers (axons) are sheared or torn due to rapid acceleration and deceleration forces. This widespread damage disrupts communication between brain cells, leading to severe neurological impairment.
The brain stem, which controls essential bodily functions, can be severely affected by direct trauma or compression from swelling and bleeding. The face often sustains severe trauma, including fractures of facial bones like the nose, cheekbones, and jaw, along with deep lacerations and eye injuries from impact with vehicle components or debris.
The Body’s Systemic Collapse
Beyond localized head trauma, the body experiences rapid systemic collapse following such an injury. Damage to the brain stem, which regulates consciousness, awareness, breathing, and movement, leads to an immediate cessation of these functions. This often results in loss of respiratory drive and cardiac arrest. When blood flow and oxygen supply to the brain are interrupted, brain cells begin to die within minutes, leading to hypoxic-ischemic brain injury.
Extensive damage to the brain and brain stem is irreversible, leading to a profound state of unconsciousness or coma. Survival in such cases is extremely low, with fatalities almost guaranteed, especially at higher impact speeds. Even if basic life signs could be maintained artificially, the brain damage is so severe that functional recovery is not possible. The brain’s inability to regulate its own blood flow and oxygen delivery further compounds the injury at a cellular level, creating a cascade of events leading to widespread cell death.
Emergency Medical Interventions
In scenarios involving a car running over a person’s head, the emergency medical response focuses on immediate assessment and intervention, though the prognosis is often grim. First responders and paramedics prioritize maintaining an open airway, adequate breathing, and supporting circulation, often referred to as the ABCs of trauma care. They assess vital signs and the level of consciousness using tools like the Glasgow Coma Scale. If any signs of life are present, resuscitation attempts, such as CPR, are initiated.
Paramedics work to prevent secondary brain injury by optimizing oxygenation and maintaining stable blood pressure, which can involve administering supplemental oxygen and intravenous fluids. While advanced medical care is provided, including transport to a trauma center, the focus often shifts to confirming the extent of irreversible damage. Medical care in these situations supports vital functions, acknowledging the severe and often unsurvivable outcome.