A broken bone after a crash is rarely “just” a broken bone. The same force that snapped your femur or fractured your pelvis was strong enough to tear soft tissue, damage nerves, and cause complications you may not feel for days. Insurance companies treat fractures as predictable, formulaic claims. They aren’t. If your fracture required surgery, hardware, or extended time off work, you need an attorney who understands what your injury is actually worth.

Travis Kelley and Colin Wolff have handled fracture cases ranging from broken wrists in low-speed rear-end collisions to multi-extremity fractures from high-speed highway crashes on I-35 and MoPac. We work directly with orthopedic surgeons, radiologists, and life care planners to document the full picture — not just the ER bill.

If you’ve been in a wreck, our Austin car accident page explains the broader claim process. This page focuses specifically on fracture injuries and what they mean for your case.

Why Broken Bones Are More Serious Than Insurance Adjusters Admit

Car crashes generate forces that human bones aren’t designed to withstand. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that crash forces in even moderate collisions can exceed the structural limits of healthy adult bone, especially in side-impact and rollover crashes where occupants strike interior surfaces directly.

The hidden complications matter more than the initial fracture:

• Post-traumatic arthritis. Fractures that involve a joint surface — wrist, ankle, knee, hip — frequently lead to arthritis years later, even with perfect surgical repair.
• Nonunion and malunion. Some bones don’t heal correctly. A nonunion fracture may require additional surgery, bone grafting, and months of additional recovery.
• Compartment syndrome. Swelling inside a closed muscle compartment can cut off blood supply within hours, sometimes requiring emergency fasciotomy.
• Fat embolism. Long-bone fractures (femur, tibia) can release fat into the bloodstream, causing life-threatening pulmonary complications in the first 72 hours.
• Hardware complications. Plates, screws, and rods can loosen, irritate surrounding tissue, or require a second surgery to remove.

The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons emphasizes that fracture severity and prognosis depend heavily on the type, location, and energy of the injury — not just whether the bone is “broken.”

Most Common Fractures in Austin Car Crashes

Different crash types tend to produce different fracture patterns. Our attorneys know which injuries to expect and which medical evidence will support them.

Femur and Lower Leg Fractures

The femur is the strongest bone in the body. Breaking it requires substantial force — typically from a front-end crash where the dashboard or steering column collapses into the lower extremities, or from a T-bone collision where the door pillar intrudes into the leg space. Femur fractures almost always require surgery with an intramedullary rod and extended rehabilitation.

Tibia and fibula fractures (the bones below the knee) are common in dashboard intrusion crashes and in motorcycle accidents. Open tibia fractures — where the bone breaks through the skin — carry serious infection risks and often need multiple surgeries.

Pelvic Fractures

Pelvic fractures are among the most dangerous orthopedic injuries because the pelvis surrounds major blood vessels and organs. A displaced pelvic fracture can cause life-threatening internal bleeding before the patient ever reaches surgery. Recovery typically involves weeks of restricted weight-bearing and months of physical therapy, with lasting effects on mobility and pelvic floor function.

Rib Fractures and Flail Chest

Rib fractures are extremely common in seatbelt loading and steering wheel impacts. Single rib fractures are painful but heal on their own; multiple rib fractures — especially “flail chest” where a segment of chest wall moves independently — can compromise breathing and lead to pneumonia. The CDC’s injury surveillance data shows rib fractures contribute significantly to crash-related hospitalizations, particularly in adults over 50.

Wrist, Hand, and Forearm Fractures

When drivers brace against the steering wheel at impact, the force transmits through the wrists and forearms. Distal radius (wrist) fractures and scaphoid fractures are routine in front-end crashes and head-on collisions. Hand and finger fractures often look minor but can produce lasting grip weakness — a serious problem for tradespeople, surgeons, musicians, and anyone whose work depends on fine motor function.

Clavicle and Shoulder Fractures

The seatbelt that saves your life can also break your collarbone. Clavicle fractures from seatbelt loading are one of the most common upper-body injuries in moderate-to-severe Austin crashes. Scapula (shoulder blade) fractures are rarer but indicate very high-energy trauma and frequently come with associated chest injuries.

Spinal Compression Fractures

Vertebral compression fractures occur when the spine is loaded axially — usually in rollovers, severe rear-end collisions, or crashes that lift the vehicle off the road. These injuries can range from a stable wedge fracture to a burst fracture that compromises the spinal canal. If your fracture involves neurological symptoms, review our spinal cord injury page for the broader picture.

Skull and Facial Fractures

Skull fractures from head impacts with the steering wheel, A-pillar, or side window often accompany traumatic brain injuries. Facial fractures (orbital, nasal, mandibular, maxillary) typically require oral and maxillofacial surgery and can leave permanent scarring or disfigurement — which Texas law recognizes as compensable non-economic damage.

Types of Fractures and What They Mean for Your Claim

The medical classification of your fracture directly affects what your case is worth. Insurance adjusters know this and will minimize the severity in their valuation. We make sure the record reflects what actually happened.

• Closed fracture — bone breaks but skin remains intact.
• Open (compound) fracture — bone pierces the skin, dramatically raising infection risk and surgical complexity.
• Comminuted fracture — bone shatters into three or more fragments; almost always requires hardware fixation.
• Displaced fracture — bone ends are out of alignment and must be reduced (set) before healing.
• Spiral fracture — bone twists apart, often indicating a high-energy rotational force.
• Greenstick fracture — partial fracture more common in children, where bone bends and cracks rather than breaking through.
• Avulsion fracture — a tendon or ligament pulls off a fragment of bone.
• Stress fracture — small crack from repetitive force; less common in single-impact crashes but relevant to delayed-presentation injuries.

A displaced, comminuted, open femur fracture is a very different claim than a closed, non-displaced wrist fracture — even though both are technically “broken bones.”

Medical Treatment and What It Costs

Fracture treatment is expensive, and the costs continue long after the cast comes off.

The typical treatment path includes emergency imaging, often a CT scan in addition to X-rays for complex fractures. Closed reduction (setting the bone without surgery) may be enough for simple fractures, but anything displaced, intra-articular, or unstable usually requires open reduction and internal fixation (ORIF) — surgery where the orthopedic surgeon places plates, screws, rods, or external fixators to hold the bone in position while it heals.

After surgery, you face weeks to months of restricted weight-bearing, physical therapy, follow-up imaging, and often a second surgery to remove hardware once the bone has fully healed. The National Library of Medicine’s MedlinePlus resource outlines the standard recovery timeline, which for major long-bone fractures runs 12 to 18 months before maximum medical improvement.

Future medical costs — including possible joint replacement decades later for fractures that damaged a joint surface — must be projected and included in your claim. Once you settle, you cannot come back for more.

Compensation You Can Recover for a Broken Bone

A properly documented fracture claim in Texas can recover:

• Medical expenses — emergency care, surgery, hardware, anesthesia, hospitalization, follow-up visits, imaging, and physical therapy
• Future medical care — anticipated hardware removal, joint replacement, revision surgery, ongoing therapy, pain management
• Lost wages — income missed during recovery and any subsequent surgeries
• Loss of earning capacity — reduced ability to do your previous job, particularly for manual labor, construction, healthcare, and skilled trades
• Pain and suffering — the physical pain of the injury, surgery, and rehabilitation
• Mental anguish — anxiety, depression, and emotional distress tied to the injury and recovery
• Disfigurement — visible surgical scars or permanent deformity
• Permanent impairment — measured under the AMA Guides and translated into a permanent disability rating

Texas places no statutory cap on non-economic damages in standard car accident cases, which matters significantly for fractures with lasting effects.

Texas Law That Affects Your Broken Bone Case

Three Texas legal rules shape every fracture claim we handle.

Statute of limitations. Under Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 16.003, you have two years from the date of the crash to file a personal injury lawsuit. Miss this deadline and your claim is gone — even with extensive medical evidence and clear liability.

Modified comparative fault. Under Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 33.001, you can still recover compensation as long as you were 50% or less at fault. Your award is reduced by your percentage of fault. At 51% or more, you recover nothing. Insurance carriers exploit this rule constantly, particularly in intersection and lane-change cases.

The eggshell plaintiff rule. If you had pre-existing arthritis, osteoporosis, or a prior fracture, Texas law holds the at-fault driver responsible for any aggravation of your condition — not just for the injuries a hypothetical healthy person would have sustained. The defense will argue your bone “would have broken anyway.” It’s a tired argument, and we know how to defeat it with the right medical experts.

How We Build a Fracture Case

Strong fracture claims require more than the ER record and a settlement demand letter. Our work typically includes:

• Securing the full set of imaging — initial X-rays, CT scans, post-op films, and follow-up studies
• Obtaining operative reports and hardware specifications from the surgeon
• Retaining an independent orthopedic expert when the at-fault carrier disputes injury causation or severity
• Working with a life care planner to project future surgical and rehabilitation costs
• Engaging a vocational expert when the injury affects your ability to do your job
• Documenting the day-to-day impact through a detailed pain journal, family declarations, and treating-physician testimony
• Pursuing all available coverage — at-fault liability policies, umbrella coverage, your own UM/UIM benefits, and commercial policies when the driver was on the job

When the at-fault driver was distracted, impaired, or driving for work, additional defendants and additional coverage often come into play. Our drunk driving accident page and Uber/Lyft accident page cover those scenarios in detail.

Why Choose Kelley Wolff for Your Broken Bone Claim

Travis Kelley and Colin Wolff handle every fracture case personally. You won’t be handed off to a case manager you never speak to. We handle all car accident injury cases on contingency — no upfront fees, no costs out of your pocket, and no attorney’s fee unless we recover for you.

We’re based in Austin, we know the orthopedic surgeons and trauma centers our clients are sent to, and we know how Travis County juries evaluate fracture claims when cases need to go to trial.