I am hurting after a car wreck but my car isn't damaged.

     When a car wreck occurs, if the cars have sustained a lot of damage, it is all too obvious that the drivers or passengers might be hurt.  But many times, the driver and passengers are hurting but the car looks fine.  This is common in what most refer to as fender benders, but make no mistake, if there is pain, then there is probably an injury of some sort.  The best thing to do if you are hurting, no matter how good or bad the car looks, is to get to the doctor for an evaluation.
     It is a misconception that the occupants of a vehicle cannot be hurt if the vehicle itself is not damaged.  A group in California headed by Dr Croft of the Spine Research Institute of San Diego, have run test collisions at low speeds with slow motion camera's focused on the drivers and passengers.  Their findings are remarkable, showing the violent nature of the head and body motion in collisions which leave the vehicles with little or no damage. 
     Certainly, there are many low speed collisions where no one is injured and that is great.  But in many cases such as this, the next day the occupants of the vehicles find that they have neck and/or back pain, headaches and stiffness.  How can this be?  Well, simply put, its basic physics.  For example, when a vehicle is struck from behind, it moves immediately forward whereas the head remains still and from the side has the appearance of being thrown backwards into the head rest.  The head rest then springs the head forward and the head is snapped when the body hits the seat belts, stopping the body's forward motion but not the head's. 
     This type of injury is called an acceleration/deceleration injury, aka - whiplash.  Damage can occur to the ligaments and muscles of both the front and back of the neck.  Basically, its a neck sprain/strain much as it might be if you sprained your ankle.  Over the next few hours to days inflammation builds up around the damaged tissues with swelling, pain and stiffness.  The bad thing about this swelling and pain is that its pressing against your neck, head and even your spinal cord, not just your tennis shoes.
     Interestingly, if there is no damage to the vehicle, then the laws of physics tell us that the force, or more specifically the momentum of the vehicle, is transferred to the occupants. In fact, at these low speeds, if the vehicle body work or bumper were to cave in a bit, there would be a lessening of the impact on the occupants.  But cars bumpers are designed not to cave in and actually spring back, transferring that momentum almost directly to the occupants.
     So, make no mistake, injury can occur even if there is no damage to the vehicles. A person knows it by the pain they might be feeling.  In fact, one should NEVER try to judge injury based upon the amount of damage to a vehicle.  If no pain or stiffness is present and none develops, then there is probably no injury.  But if its there, don't ignore it.  Get to the doctor.