Atlanto-occipital dissociation
The cervical spine radiograph has little roll in the imaging of the cervical spine in adult major trauma as CT is the investigation of choice, however clinical suspicion of non-survivable atlanto-occipital dissociation in this case promoted the trauma team to perform an x-ray in the trauma bay. By quickly confirming a non-survivable injury, a superfluous trauma CT pan scan was able to be avoided.