Biomechanical assessment following a road traffic accident

Yes, but with a prescription: that of your doctor, or a request from your lawyer or expert witness, specifying which areas need to be evaluated. Bring your reports and, if there are ongoing proceedings, mention it so the report can be tailored to what you need to document.

A permanent sequela is said to exist when, once treatment is finished and the injury has stabilised, a limitation persists that is no longer expected to improve; this is the point at which medical discharge is assessed and when the compensation scale requires a conclusive report. The most important biomechanical assessment is usually the one carried out at this stage, but it is advisable to have a prior measurement—at the start of or during rehabilitation—so that the report shows progress rather than just a final snapshot. If your case is already at the discharge or claim stage, book an appointment as soon as possible and bring your medical reports and the date of the accident.

This is the norm, not an exception: in cervical sprain, X-rays and MRI scans are usually normal. The injury is evident through pain, stiffness, and loss of mobility and strength, and part of this can be documented by measuring how the neck functions. The test does not measure pain, but rather how it affects mobility and strength, and it is interpreted alongside the doctor's examination.

The points are not awarded by the test itself: they are assigned by the medical expert applying the scale set out in Law 35/2015, which assesses the residual limitation once the injury has stabilised. What the biomechanical assessment provides is the measurement of that limitation: how many degrees of cervical mobility are missing compared to expected values, how much strength has been lost, or whether movement speed remains altered. With these figures, along with the physical examination and the patient's reported symptoms, the expert can substantiate the sequela.

Article 135 of Law 35/2015 stipulates that the sequela of a minor cervical trauma, whiplash, is only compensated if a conclusive medical report proves its existence after the period of temporary injury. This report is issued by the doctor assessing the injured person, and the biomechanical test is one of the instrumental examinations that can support it, as it adds objective measurements to the doctor's examination. Our report is not in itself the conclusive report nor does it determine compensation: it is the complementary test that the assessing doctor or medical expert incorporates into their expert opinion.

No. An impact biomechanics report reconstructs the crash (speeds, deformations, accelerations) to assess whether the impact could have caused the injury, and is carried out by engineers or accident reconstruction experts. Clinical biomechanics measures the person, not the vehicle: how the injured area is functioning and how it is progressing. When an insurer disputes the intensity of the impact, the lawyer may need both reports; here, we perform the clinical one.

Yes. Dizziness and instability are common after whiplash and can be caused by the neck itself or by an impairment of the balance system. They are measured using posturography (how you maintain balance while standing, with and without visual support) and gait analysis, in the same centre as the Vestibular Unit, and if necessary, completed with an otoneurological examination.