Experienced Mississippi Automobile Accident Attorney Warns About the Dangers of Concussions Resulting from Crashes

You’ve probably heard about the dangers of concussions in the context of N.F.L. players experiencing serious brain injuries from a lifetime on the playing field.  While most of us will never suit up for a football game, concussions are a serious injury that anyone can experience as a result of a car accident.

Concussions are commonly occurring, mild brain injuries that can have dramatic long and short term consequences for those who experience them. They are caused by the brain accelerating within and hitting the interior of the skull, which results in trauma. Too often, people experience concussions after an accident and decide to “shake it off” or not take it seriously. Unfortunately, that can be a serious mistake. Having helped numerous clients in Mississippi recovering from accidents, Barrett Law can help clients through this potentially life altering condition.

Having helped our clients through accidents resulting in concussions, we want to provide the following information as a guide to those who may need our services.

All Concussions are Serious – It may sound obvious, but too many people would treat a broken arm seriously, but not an injury to the brain. That’s likely because the pain from a broken arm is acute and the injury is visible.  Brain injuries are often not obvious, and are always invisible. But even a slight concussion can later pose serious problems. In short, you need to seek medical treatment for a concussion, even if it does not immediately seem to be a significant medical condition.

You Do Not Need to Hit Your Head to Get a Concussion – The obvious way to receive a concussion is by hitting your head.  But a concussion is not necessarily caused by impact to the skull. Again, a concussion is caused by the brain accelerating within the skull and impacting the skull’s interior.  That can result from the sudden impact of an automobile accident. You should never rule out a concussion because you did not “hit your head.” Any time you experience an automobile accident, you may have a concussion.  Only a medical professional can rule that out.

If You Experience a Concussion, You Are More Likely to Experience Another – Unfortunately, you become more susceptible to concussions once you have had one. So if you have been in a sports related trauma, the odds of you having a concussion as a result of an automobile accident are increase.

The More Concussions You Have, the More Dangerous They Are – We are just learning about how concussions affect people in the long term, but as indicted by the recent studies into NFL players experiencing CTE, or Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, repeated concussions—even minor ones—can have short term side effects of pain, light sensitivity, dizziness, and fatigue, but also have serious long term neurological effects. Sadly, repeated concussions may cause debilitating brain degeneration.

It is a serious mistake to simply assume that you do not need a medical consultation after a car accident. Even if you have not impacted your head, you may be experiencing a concussion.  This is particularly true if you have suffered from a concussion in the past. Making decisions that may affect your long term health and livelihood without expert advice at this moment is a mistake.

If you have been in an accident, you are not in a position to assess the possible long term consequences of the injuries you may have incurred, especially brain or neurological injuries. The Barrett Law Firm is an experienced Mississippi auto accident firm skilled in providing the sort of advice you need if you have experienced a concussion as a result of negligence of other drivers.

Contact the Barrett Law Firm now if you have been in an automobile accident.

Call the Mississippi Automobile Accident Attorney at the Barrett Law Firm at (800) 707-9577 to receive a consultation regarding your accident, regardless of its seriousness.  Too often, a “minor” accident or “fender bender” has unanticipated, long term consequences.  Our experience helping accident victims may mean the difference between healing and long term debilitation.

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Mississippi Texting and Driving Laws

By now, most of us know that texting and driving is dangerous, and yet, many people admit that they do still send and read messages while they are behind the wheel. These texting drivers get in accidents 23 times more often than drivers who are not looking at their phone. In the course of a year, cell phone use leads to around 1.6 million vehicle collisions and crashes. Texting and driving, therefore, leads to hundreds of thousands of injuries, thousands of deaths, and expensive property damage.

In acknowledgment of the dangers of texting and driving, most states have enacted laws that make this practice illegal. Now a person caught texting and driving might be subject to fines, although the risk of a fine pales in comparison to the threat texting and driving creates for all people on the road.

Mississippi Law

Mississippi is one of the 47 states that have banned texting while driving for all drivers. When the law was first enacted, a driver caught texting would be subject to a $25 fine, but the penalty has since increased to $100. The law also bans the use of social media while driving. If the texting driver is one who only holds a learning permit, temporary driving permit, or an intermediate license, the fines can be $500, and more in the event that an accident occurs as a result of the phone use.

Accidents resulting from texting and driving

Liability in vehicle collisions often revolves around the concept of negligence. In order to be considered negligent, a person must have acted in a way that a reasonably prudent person would not act in the same situation. Given the fact that texting and driving is known to be dangerous, it is safe to say that a person who was looking at their phone and either reading a text or actually writing one while they were driving was not behaving as a reasonably prudent person. The fact that a person was texting at the time of or just before an accident would be a strong indication that they were negligent. However, the texting driver may even be considered “negligent per se,” meaning that they will be presumed negligent for having been texting while driving. Negligence per se occurs when a person breaks a law that is meant to protect people, and a person who was meant to be protected by the law is injured as a result. Laws that ban texting and driving are created to protect everyone on the road from dangerous driving, and resulting collisions or pedestrian accidents. As such, it is safe to say that anyone injured by a texting driver was meant to be protected by this law.

Car accident liability

If you were injured in a car crash and believe the other driver was being negligent, you could be entitled to compensation from that other driver. If you believe the other driver was texting or otherwise distracted by their phone at the time of the collision, then there is a good chance that the other driver was negligent, and should be responsible for paying damages to you for the injuries that they caused you. It is important to speak with an attorney to have the specific facts of your claim evaluated.  Contact the seasoned Mississippi Car Accident Attorney at Barrett Law, PLLC now at (800) 707-9577 or visiting us online at www.barrettlawpllc.com.

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Mississippi Automobile Accident Attorneys Talk About Pile-Up Accidents

One person died in a recent three car pile-up accident in George County. The wreck occurred when a truck hit another truck from behind, pushing it into the garbage truck stopped in front of it. Two workers had been on the back of the trash truck, one on either side. The crash sent both of them flying off of the garbage truck. One man died from his injuries. The other man went to the hospital. The driver of the trash truck and the driver of the truck that got hit went to the hospital after the crash because they had minor injuries.

Rear-end collisions are a common cause of pile-up accidents. When roads are busy, and people are not always looking where they are going, rear-ending the car in front of you is always a possibility. Traffic can slow and stop suddenly, and unless drivers are paying attention, they might not always be able to avoid hitting the car in front of them. If there is an accident on the roadway, a driver might not see it until it’s too late to avoid hitting it, and then they pile onto the existing wreckage. When vehicles begin to pile up, more vehicles can become involved in the crash quickly if drivers are not paying attention and if the wrecked cars remain on the road.

Fortunately, you can help prevent chain reaction accidents. Remember the following safe driving strategies to increase your chance of avoiding a chain reaction crash. The best way to prevent a pileup is to leave plenty of room between your car and the vehicle in front of you. Some vehicles like garbage trucks and mail trucks make frequent stops and need even more space because they move erratically. Stay one car length back from the vehicle in front of you for every ten miles per hour of your speed. Leaving space between vehicles gives the driver in the rear time to react to the movements of the vehicle in front of it. Drivers can also avoid chain reaction wrecks by paying close attention to the weather and adjusting their driving speed to the road and weather conditions.

Sometimes, even the safest drivers cannot effectively prevent an accident. If you got hurt in a chain reaction accident, you could be facing a complicated set of facts that might make it hard for fault to be assigned conclusively. When fault is unclear, insurance companies often withhold payment for claims. Your attorney can help you by remaining in contact with the insurance company to ensure that they act on your claim within a reasonable amount of time.

Barrett Law PLLC:  Help for Mississippi Accident Victims

Pile-up accidents that happen in slowed or stopped traffic can cause severe injury or death. If you got in a chain reaction crash and you got hurt, or a family member got killed, contact a Mississippi Automobile Accident Attorney right away. To find out more about what a Mississippi automobile accident lawyer could do for you after your crash, call the Mississippi Automobile Accident Attorneys of Barrett Law PLLC at 1 (800) 707-9577 to arrange an initial consultation.

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Mississippi Workplace Accident Attorneys Talk About Mitigating Workplace Violence Risk

Workplace violence is a real threat to worker safety, but it is much more of a threat at certain types of workplaces than it is at others. Corrections workers face a much higher risk of workplace violence in their work within our nation’s prisons as well as out in the community with those who are involved in the criminal justice system. A recent complaint to the United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regarding a Mississippi prison brought about an investigation and eventual settlement that can serve as a template for requiring employers to actively mitigate the risk of violence within their workplaces.

The complaint got filed in 2011 by a correctional officer who worked at a privately operated state prison in Mississippi. The complaint is eight pages, and it raises numerous questions about the safety of people who work at the prison because of shortages of staff, shortages of security equipment like two-way radios, assaults by inmates on correctional officers, inadequate locking mechanisms on cells, and limited escape routes from the facility.

A shortage of staff in any workplace creates some degree of risk for employees. In a correctional setting, there are many situations where officers should work in pairs to safeguard their safety. When corrections staff work alone there is the potential for violence them more than there is if there are two or more working together. Workplaces of all kinds are responsible for knowing how many employees they need for each shift and for staffing their facilities accordingly. The staffing shortages at the prison were one of the reasons why OSHA cited the facility with a violation of its general duty clause.

Another contributing factor in why OSHA issued a willful violation citation for the prison is that malfunctioning cell door locks were not fixed, which greatly increased the risk of harm to staff and inmates due to violence, even though the employer was aware of the problem and aware of the danger that the problem created for some time. Fortunately, after the prison received the willful violation citation, the company which runs the facility agreed to implement specific safety modifications at the Mississippi prison that was the subject of the complaint and in all of its facilities nationwide. As part of that, the company hired a third-party corrections management consultant and implemented a workplace violence prevention program. They also created workplace safety committees. These steps forward are more than companies usually take after such a citation, but OSHA is hoping that other facilities that got similarly cited will follow suit and take the initiative to improve workplace safety.

Barrett Law PLLC – Representing The Interests of Injured Mississippi Workers

A skilled workplace injury attorney can help you navigate the often tricky task of pursuing a claim for damages after a workplace accident. Your attorney can also offer valuable support and guidance to assist you through every stage of the workers’ compensation claims process. If you got hurt at work or you lost a loved one in a workplace accident, you can get help from a Mississippi Workplace Accident Attorney. Call the Mississippi Workplace Accident Attorneys at Barrett Law PLLC at 1 (800) 707-9577 to find out more.

 

 

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Mississippi Automobile Accident Attorneys Say Not All Accident Scenes Are Easy to Examine

Many car accident scenes provide investigators with plenty of useful and easy to access information that they can then use to formulate conclusions about how the accident occurred. Sometimes, though, conditions at or near an accident scene can make finding answers difficult for investigators. Unfortunately, in the case of fatal accidents, this means that families who have lost their loved ones must wait to find out how and why they died.

For example, the investigation into an accident that killed at least three people got delayed by heavy rain. The SUV that crashed is reported to have had four people in it, but there were only three bodies, two men and a woman, that got recovered after the wreck. The fourth person, a woman, is missing.  All three people who perished in the wreck died as the result of multiple traumas from the crash.

The crashed vehicle did not get discovered until about three or four days after the accident because of where it ended up. Fishermen found the SUV in a creek, under a fifty-foot-high bridge. Motorists driving on the bridge cannot see underneath it, so no one driving by noticed the vehicle until the fishermen found it. At the time the vehicle got found, the creek as a lot higher than normal due to heavy rains in the area, the same rain which made it tough to look for the fourth person who is said to have been in the SUV. The search for the missing woman got suspended because the weather and the stream and river conditions made it unsafe for rescuers and volunteers to look for the woman.

The people who were driving and riding in the SUV were en route from Illinois to Florida. Someone reported them missing before the fishermen found their vehicle in the creek. Investigators are working to piece together the details of what may have happened, and initially, there are still so many unknowns which make it hard to put together any cohesive theory of what happened. The search for the missing woman can continue as soon as possible so that more can be known about the accident and so her family can know where she is.

Barrett Law PLLC:  Help for Mississippi Automobile Accident Victims

Accidents that leave investigators with more questions than answers can be frustrating for friends and family members of those who got hurt or killed in the crash. When there are injuries and or losses, families want as many answers as they can get. Speaking with an attorney might not speed up the investigation into the cause of the accident, but it can prepare you and your family for what you might be able to expect in the weeks and months to come. If you got hurt or a family member got killed in a traffic accident, contact a Mississippi Automobile Accident Attorney right away, even if the accident is still under investigation. If you have questions about what a Mississippi automobile accident lawyer could do for you and your family after your accident, please call the Mississippi Automobile Accident Attorneys of Barrett Law PLLC at 1 (800) 707-9577 to set up an initial consultation.

 

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Mississippi Automobile Accident Attorneys Talk About Pile-Up Accidents

Recently, one person died, and at least four others got hurt in a six-vehicle pile-up accident in Mt. Olive. The accident happened at a traffic light. The chain of events that led up to the pile-up started when a trailer truck rear-ended a car which was s at the traffic light. Other cars collided with the crashed vehicles until a total of six vehicles got ensnared in the wreckage. Authorities are currently investigating the accident.

Chain reaction accidents can be dangerous and often deadly. Fortunately, drivers can sometimes prevent them or avoid getting entangled in them. Pile-ups can happen fast, especially on crowded roads during busy travel times, but the following safety tips just might help you avoid causing or adding to a chain reaction wreck. For example, one of the best ways to prevent a chain reaction crash is to always leave enough space between your vehicle and the vehicles around you. Many drivers do not realize that adequate space means staying at least one car length back from the vehicle in front of you, for every ten miles per hour of your car’s speed. When drivers leave enough space between their vehicles and the cars around them, they have some space to work with if other vehicles nearby make unexpected maneuvers.

Sometimes, pile-up accidents start with a vehicle hydroplaning or otherwise losing control because of weather-related driving conditions. That type of pile-up can sometimes be avoided, and drivers can also avoid piling onto other accidents by paying close attention to the weather and road conditions and adjusting their driving accordingly. Mississippi often experiences heavy rain and thick fog. Fog and rain reduce visibility, so drivers must slow down to give themselves time to react to things as they can see them. If you drive too fast when visibility is low, you could get into an accident if a car stops short in front of your vehicle because, by the time that you see the vehicle stop, it is too late to react to it. Rain also reduces traction, so drivers must go slow enough to avoid hydroplaning and ensure that they can stop without sliding all over the road.

Barrett Law PLLC:  Serving Families Affected by Mississippi Chain Reaction Accidents

Unfortunately, sometimes even the safest drivers cannot avoid an accident. Reaching your destination safely depends on many things, some of which are beyond your control. If you got hurt or someone you love got killed in a chain reaction accident, you might face a complicated set of facts that could make it difficult for fault to get assigned to one or more of the drivers that were involved in the wreck. Not only can that be frustrating, but it can also delay the payment of your automobile accident claim, at a time when you need that compensation to recover or help your family recover from the effects of the accident. If your family was affected by a Mississippi motor vehicle crash, a Mississippi Automobile Accident Attorney could help you pursue an automobile accident claim for your damages or your loss. Call the Mississippi Automobile Accident Attorneys at Barrett Law PLLC, at 1 (800) 707-9577, to learn more.

 

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Mississippi Automobile Accident Attorneys Share Safety Tips for Driving in Traffic

A horrific crash in Gautier claimed the lives of four people. The accident occurred in heavy traffic. An accident had stopped traffic on the westbound side of the highway. As people sat in traffic waiting for that accident to get cleared, a devastating pile-up crash occurred. An eighteen wheeler rear-ended an SUV, and the force of the impact pushed the SUV into the rear of a pickup truck and then into the rear of another tractor trailer. The four adults who perished in the wreck were all passengers in the SUV.

It is essential that drivers learn how to drive safely through congested traffic. Sitting in traffic can be annoying, and it can make you feel anxious if you are trying to arrive somewhere at a specific time. Despite how you feel about sitting in traffic, you must remain aware of what is going on around you and do what you can to stay safe.

One way to drive safely in traffic is to avoid it whenever possible. Sometimes, you can commute to work early and leave early, or go in later and stay later to avoid rush hour traffic on either end of the day. For non-work trips, plan to go during times when traffic is not usually heavy. Sometimes planning your trip around traffic is not an option. When that happens, it is time to employ the following safe-driving strategies.

Whenever you are driving, look ahead of you often, so that you can see traffic slowing or stopping before you get right up to it. When you see slowed or stopped traffic, slow down accordingly as you approach it. Once you are sitting in traffic that is slowed or stopped, it can be tempting to distract yourself with a smartphone, loud music, or conversation. It may seem counter-intuitive, but you must pay extra close attention to driving when you are driving slowly or not even moving. If you have ever turned the radio way, way down while driving in a congested area or you have asked your children to “Be quiet, there is traffic, and I need to focus,” you understand the need for focus that driving in traffic creates. Turn off the phone, turn down the radio, and ask that your passengers help you be safe by talking quietly amongst themselves.

Now that you are focused on the road and the traffic around you, it’s time to drive defensively. Pay attention to your surroundings, keep your vehicle moving with the flow of traffic, and leave plenty of space between your car and other nearby vehicles. As traffic begins to move, maintain more and more space between your vehicle and the car in front of you as speed increases because you need room to stop if traffic slows down or stops again.

Barrett Law PLLC:  Serving Families Affected by Mississippi Car Crashes

If your family has been affected by a Mississippi motor vehicle wreck, a Mississippi Automobile Accident Attorney can help you pursue a claim for your damages or your loss. Call the Mississippi Automobile Accident Attorneys at Barrett Law PLLC, at 1 (800) 707-9577, to learn more.

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Mississippi Automobile Accident Attorneys Share Safe Driving Tips for Drivers of Standard-Shift Vehicles

Many people enjoy driving standard-shift cars, even though there is more effort required in learning how to drive them safely. Whether you’re learning how to drive a standard-shift car or you are an experienced driver, it is a good idea to review the following safe driving tips for navigating slowed and stopped traffic safely with your standard-shift vehicle.

The most basic safe driving strategy for getting through heavy traffic in your standard-shift car is to allow plenty of space in between your car and the vehicle in front of you. If you’re accustomed to driving an automatic shift vehicle, be aware that the suggested amount of space between vehicles is even greater for standard-shift vehicles than it is for automatic shift vehicles so leave more than you usually would. The space between your car and the car in front of you will enable you to creep forward in low gear when traffic begins to move, eliminating the need to ride your clutch or shift more often than necessary.

Stop and go traffic can be frustrating when you are driving a standard-shift car. It is a good idea to learn how your vehicle handles and decide whether you prefer first or second gear for navigating traffic jams. When you need to slow down use engine braking to your advantage by easing off of the gas and shifting into a lower gear when the RPMs are low enough to do so. Shifting in this manner is much more gentle than an abrupt shift, and makes for less wear and tear on your car.

If someone is following you too close behind, remain calm. The law expects drivers to leave space between their car and the car in front of them, in acknowledgment of the fact that standard transmission vehicles roll back when the driver is shifting into first gear. If someone is close to your bumper, give your car a little more gas than you normally would as you shift into first and slowly let the clutch out.

Whenever you can, maintain a constant speed that is slightly slower than the traffic. You can avoid frequent shifts by doing this, and it also gives you time to respond to the maneuvers of cars near you. It also helps you to keep a good distance between your car and the car in front of you. Be prepared to downshift quickly if a car cuts into that space because that can happen, especially in traffic.

Barrett Law PLLC:  Help for Mississippi Traffic Accident Victims

Accidents that occur in slowed or stopped traffic can cause severe injury or death. If you got hurt or a family member got killed in a traffic accident, contact a Mississippi Automobile Accident Attorney right away. If you would like to find out more about what a Mississippi automobile accident lawyer could do for you and your family after an accident, call the Mississippi Automobile Accident Attorneys of Barrett Law PLLC at 1 (800) 707-9577 to arrange an initial consultation.

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Mississippi Automobile Accident Attorneys Talk About Rear-End Crashes

A man was extricated from his vehicle and airlifted from the scene of a two-vehicle rear-end wreck. The mid-afternoon accident happened as a pickup truck was waiting to make a turn. A pickup truck rear-ended the first pickup truck. The man who got trapped inside of his truck was the driver of the truck that collided with the back of the stopped pickup truck. The driver of the truck that was stopped and waiting to turn did not get hurt.

Rear end crashes are a common type of motor vehicle accident. These collisions often happen when a driver pulls out in front of another moving car. They also occur when people follow other cars too closely, when drivers get distracted, when traffic slows suddenly, and when weather and road conditions increase braking distance. Rear end accidents can happen to anyone, and they can cause painful injuries and extensive damage to your vehicle.

If you get into a rear-end collision, it is essential that you and the other driver remove your vehicles from the road if it is safe to do so. Rear end wrecks can quickly turn into pile up accidents if drivers are not paying attention to what they are doing and notice the crashed cars when it is too late to avoid hitting them. It is also important to call the police to report your accident right away so that they can send emergency personnel to help anyone who got hurt as well as a tow truck to remove the vehicles from the road if one or both is too damaged to be removed without the aid of a tow truck.

When there is a rear end accident, it is not always clear who is at fault. In Mississippi, accidents must get investigated to determine whose fault the accident was. It is important that you not discuss fault with anyone at the accident scene. Aside from providing the police with any documents that you need to give them like your license and vehicle registration, it is important to talk with an attorney before speaking with anyone about the accident. This also applies to insurance companies, who may try to contact you after the crash and trick you into saying something that could compromise your position or offer you a settlement that is well below the actual value of the amount that you could receive for your injuries and damages if you understand the value of your claim.

Barrett Law PLLC:  Help for Mississippi Rear End Accident Victims

Rear end accidents can cause severe injury or death and lots of property damage. If you got hurt or a loved one got killed in a rear-end wreck, contact a Mississippi Automobile Accident Attorney today. If you want to learn more about what an automobile accident lawyer could do to help you recover physically and financially after a devastating accident, call the Mississippi Automobile Accident Attorneys at Barrett Law PLLC at 1 (800) 707-9577 to arrange a consultation.

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Mississippi Automobile Accident Attorneys Discuss Accidents Involving Big Animals

An enormous Louisiana black bear was the lone fatality in a recent automobile accident. The bear is the largest that ever got recorded in Mississippi, and it tipped the scales at just under four hundred and seventy pounds. A woman was driving an SUV when she hit the bear. Her Chevrolet Suburban was severely damaged, but none of the five people who were riding in the vehicle at the time of the crash were seriously injured. Some of the people who were in the SUV when the wreck happened complained of pain afterward.

Bears are rare in Mississippi, and while some bears are trapped, weighed, examined, and fitted with radio collars before getting released. There are also bears in the state that do not have radio collars, so an exact count of how many bears are presently in the state does not exist. While bears are rare, there is always a chance, albeit not a large one, that a driver will encounter some other large, wild or domestic animal on the road. Depending on where you drive, you might see a deer, elk, cow, or horse on the road when you are driving. Knowing a few things about animal accidents can help you anticipate situations in which you might encounter an animal while driving.

About one and a half million car accidents get caused by animals every year. Many of those accidents occur at night because it is harder for drivers to see animals at night than it is during the day. Another because that’s when many animals are out and about.  There are also seasonal variations in wildlife movement that affect the likelihood of a vehicle-wildlife collision. For example, deer are very active during hunting season.

Drivers should be aware that in wooded areas and other places where the vegetation that grows next to the road is tall, animals can appear on the road suddenly.  This gives motorists little time and space to maneuver to avoid hitting them. Also, be aware that many animals travel in groups. If you see one deer by the road, scan the area carefully to see whether there are others nearby.

The people who were in the SUV that hit the bear are fortunate that they did not get badly injured or killed in the crash. Accidents involving large animals are often fatal. The size and weight of large animals create forceful impacts when they come into contact with vehicles. An animal that gets tossed into the air after getting hit by a car can crash through the windshield or even crush the vehicle’s roof. If you cannot entirely avoid a collision with an animal, try to hit it at an angle, so it will get deflected away from the car instead of getting tossed into the air.

Barrett Law PLLC:  Serving People Injured in Mississippi Car Crashes

If you collided with an animal, you might be hurt, and your car is probably badly damaged. Automobile accident claims for accidents involving animals can be complicated, and the insurance company may require that a police report gets submitted before a claim can be paid. If you were involved in any car crash in Mississippi, a Mississippi Automobile Accident Attorney could help you file a claim for your damages or your loss. Call the Mississippi Automobile Accident Attorneys at Barrett Law PLLC, at 1 (800) 707-9577, to learn more.

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