The most important thing: VA treatment does not erase your South Dakota injury claim, but you must connect the airbag to the fracture with records the insurer cannot easily dismiss.

What should have happened right away: after a Sioux Falls crash on black ice, snow pack, or low-visibility winter roads like I-29, there should have been a police response or at least a crash report. If you had facial swelling, blurred vision, nose bleeding, or pain around the eye socket, the key evidence was an immediate ER exam and imaging - especially a CT scan. If you went to Sanford USD Medical Center, keep the trauma records because it is the state's only Level II trauma center and those records usually document mechanism of injury clearly.

Photos from the same day matter too: deployed airbag, facial abrasions, broken glasses, blood on the airbag, and damage to the steering wheel, dash, or windshield.

What to do now: get both systems talking on paper, because they will not do it themselves. Request:

• the Sioux Falls Police Department or South Dakota crash report
• ER records, CT scans, and ophthalmology or maxillofacial follow-up
• all VA records tied to the crash
• photos of your face for the first several days
• the vehicle's airbag and interior damage photos
• work records showing missed time or vision limits

Make sure your chart says airbag deployment to face and not just "motor vehicle accident." That detail is what insurers try to blur.

What comes next: the insurer will look for gaps. If you delayed care, they may blame the fracture on an old injury or say winter conditions caused the crash but not the facial injury. Your proof is the timeline: crash, airbag deployment, immediate symptoms, imaging, and consistent follow-up.

In South Dakota, the general deadline to sue for personal injury is 3 years. Do not let the carrier sit on your claim while your records stay split between the VA and civilian providers.