Celebrating a birthday, college graduation, or wedding with a drink is a common practice that many Mississippi residents participate in. While there’s nothing wrong with toasting to the goodwill of friends and loved ones, it can become a problem when a person decides to get behind the wheel of a motor vehicle after a night of drinking.

Most people underestimate how much alcohol has affected them and overestimate their driving abilities. At Pittman Roberts & Welsh, PLLC, we would like to stress the importance of not driving after drinking. If you remain unconvinced, consider the ways in which blood alcohol concentration (BAC) affects driving ability.

Being in a car accident is a scary experience for anyone—no matter how minor or severe the crash. Your first concern should always be the safety and well-being of yourself and any passengers that were in the vehicle at the time of the collision.

But once all injuries are treated, and the dust has settled, there’s often another looming issue: determining the value of a car after an accident.

Any vehicle property damage incurred in the collision will have an effect on the value of your car post-crash. It’s very possible that you will be dealing with diminished value, which can impact how much you can sell your car for in the future. Even a new car completely repaired after an accident can have a lower market value than an older one that was never involved in a crash.

The greatest tragedy of most motor vehicle deaths is that they could have been prevented. While statistics tell us how many car accident fatalities happen in Mississippi each year, these numbers can never convey the devastation each family experiences when a loved one is lost.

The Jackson personal injury law firm of Pittman Roberts & Welsh, PLLC advocates for victims of Mississippi motor vehicle crashes involving wrongful death. If you have questions regarding a motor vehicle collision in which you or a loved one were involved, please contact our office to schedule a free case evaluation.

Whiplash is a common soft tissue injury many people experience at some point in their lives. Many people suffer a whiplash injury in a motor vehicle accident, but it can also stem from other incidents such as falling from a height or being struck by something.

The result of whiplash is pain and stiffness in the neck and shoulder region, making it difficult to move your head or work properly.

Throughout the remainder of this article, we will explain what whiplash is and delve a bit deeper into what causes this injury. We will also tackle how long you should be off work for whiplash as well as how to tell when you might be ready to return to work after suffering an injury accident here in Mississippi.

You have been involved in a car accident. What happens next?

Auto collision victims are often surprised to find that insurance adjusters begin contacting those days or even hours after a collision. This gives accident survivors very little time to gather their thoughts and prepare for a conversation. Insurance companies take advantage of this fact, often contacting policyholders when they are still disoriented and emotionally vulnerable in the wake of an accident.

What questions will an adjuster ask after a car accident? Read on to learn more about the questions you can expect to receive—and the answers that will best protect you from being taken advantage of by the insurance company.

Airbags are crucial to vehicle occupant safety. In the event of a car accident, airbags drastically reduce the chances of suffering a severe upper body or head injury. However, there are some safety tips you should follow to increase the effectiveness of your vehicle’s airbags.

Below are our top five airbag safety tips that we encourage everyone in Jackson to follow.

Car accidents are, unfortunately, quite common. Every year, anywhere from 20 to 50 million people suffer non-fatal injuries due to road traffic incidents. Jackson sees its fair share of crashes. The latest data published by the the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) last year lists the Mississippi crash fatality rate as 752 people per year. Countless others involved in crashes are lucky to be alive yet suffer debilitating injuries in their crashes. Their lives have little chance of returning to what it was pre-crash.

A loved one’s wrongful death stemming from a car accident can be both emotionally and financially devastating. Injuries can also be so debilitating and leave you with such crippling chronic pain and significant mental anguish that you warrant long-term medical care and become unable to work to support yourself.

Sharing the road with a motorist who is engaging in unsafe driving behaviors is a stressful experience. Aggressive and reckless drivers make the road unsafe for everyone else and are more likely to cause a serious accident than someone who is following Mississippi’s traffic laws.

If you were injured in a car accident caused by a negligent driver, you might be facing an uphill battle to secure compensation from the insurance company. Disputes over liability can be time-consuming and costly, especially if you are unsure exactly which factors contributed to your collision.

An AAA study determined that pothole damage costs motorists in the U.S. about $3 billion every year. The vehicle damage that can result from hitting a pothole is well known to many drivers unlucky enough to have had a run-in with a large road crater. But many people are less familiar with auto collisions caused by potholes.

How do potholes cause accidents? We will look at a few ways hitting a pothole can ultimately lead to an accident between two vehicles or between a vehicle and a pedestrian or bicyclist.

Data published by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) details how an estimated 30% of all car accidents are attributable to drunk driving. Over 10,000 individuals die in drunk driving crashes yearly in the United States. There were at least 170 alcohol-impaired driving fatalities in 2019 here in Mississippi. Countless others likely suffered varying degrees of injuries in other alcohol-involved crashes.

Drunk driving accidents are often described as preventable crashes. They wouldn’t have occurred had it not been for a motorist negligently getting behind the wheel of a car, putting others’ lives at risk. When sharing the road with others, there are a few telltale signs that a drunk driver is near that you can be on the lookout for to potentially avoid becoming entangled in a crash.