Actually, Broomstick, I would suspect that the deceleration trauma you mention and blunt impact trauma are just two different names for the same phenomenon. If a person gets hit by a club, say, that’ll transfer momentum to the body (or at least to the part of the body struck), causing it to accelerate. Internal parts won’t all accelerate at the same rate, so things will get shaken up and maybe broken inside. Since acceleration and deceleration are physically indistinguishable, I think the only difference with the injuries you describe is that essentially the whole body is struck at once.
I feel like arguing today, so here goes –
No, I don’t think they’re quite the same thing. “Blunt force” results in more damage on the outside than the inside. Whack someone on the arm with a baseball bat hard enough to knock 'em off their feet the only severe damage is likely to be where the bat actually hit the body.
Decelleration, however, causes more damage on the inside than the outside - basically your internal organs beat themselves against your skeleton. Also, if your body is decellerated by hitting a large object, sure, there will be damage at the actual point of contact, but also in other parts of the body that also come to a halt. This results in what I have heard described as a “body bruise” in non-fatal instances - meaning instead of just the point of contact bruising or breaking you get essentially your whole body turning into one massive bruise.
Of course, there is considerable overlap and in the case of someone falling from a great height either the blunt force OR the decelleration may be of fatal porportions, but no, they aren’t quite the same thing.
No. I’ve seen a couple of attempted suicides by jumping off a bridge. Ironically, both had very similar injuries which resulted in the fusion of their ankles. Neither will ever walk normally again.
Is that because they hit feet-first, so the worst damage was to the lower limbs?