'Don't Wear Hair Clips While Driving': 19-Year-Old Warns Women After Car Crash

A surgery, three days of being hospitalised, and six weeks of recovery later, Jeena Panesar’s still not doing okay.

(Photo: FIT)

“I kind of thought I was going to die,” says Jeena Panesar, a 19-year-old student at the University of Derby, who got into a “traumatic” car accident on 24 January.

While driving on a country road in Derbyshire’s Swadlincote back in January, Panesar’s car had “skidded, hit a tree, and flipped for 50m” due to thick fog, she told BBC News. 

Now, she’s on a mission to warn people about the dangers of wearing a claw clip while driving since that is what caused her a skull-deep wound.

The Accident

Panesar, a forensic psychology student, was driving home from school when she felt her car’s tyre dip into what she was later told was a gully.

The car skidded and hit a tree after which she passed out. When she regained consciousness, she tried to crawl out of the car and alerted passersby.

A surgery, three days of being hospitalised, and six weeks of recovery later, she’s still not doing okay.

The crash has led to her forehead’s muscles being damaged and a skull-deep wound that’ll take time to heal.

Hair Claw’s The Villain?

“The doctors told me I had a 30 cm cut from my left eyebrow to the back of my head, which they thought was caused by the car roof and my hair clip.”

Jenna Panesar to BBC News

According to Panesar, when the car crashed, her head was crushed against the vehicle’s roof, the force of which “jammed” the hair clip through the flesh into her skull. 

At the hospital, a nurse had to take the hair clip out of her head.

Older Cases: But turns out, it’s not the first time that a claw clip has led to a serious injury. According to Daily Mail, a five-year-old suffered brain damage in 2011 after a “hair clip became embedded in her skull” due to a fall.

Daily Mail also reported that a journalist, who was hit by a bike, suffered from a ‘severe injury’ that caused “prolonged blurred vision and dizziness” after her hair clip got stuck into her head.