Cotton's character is paralysed in a car accident, and assumed dead; although he remains conscious, he is unable to move or communicate. In a voice-over, he expresses his frustration, paranoia, and desperation. The audience is as powerless as he is, being unable to tell the other characters that he is still alive. This is a classic Hitchcock strategy - the audience knows more than the on-screen characters, thus constantly intensifying the suspense.
The car crash is filmed as a montage, with brief, sudden shots conveying violence and chaos. This is followed by a series of long, still shots of Cotton's paralysed face, just as Janet Leigh's motionless face stares at us from the bathroom floor in Psycho.