Whiplash Injuries Following a Tennessee Car Accident: Signs, Symptoms, and Causes

While broken bones are certainly bad injuries, soft tissue injuries like whiplash can be even worse.  Soft tissue injuries don’t have a set healing process like fractured bones or lacerations, but rather can be volatile and difficult to diagnose, treat, and otherwise heal completely.  One of the most common soft tissues injuries are whiplash injuries.

Whiplash injuries commonly occur in a Tennessee motor vehicle accident where one vehicle is rear-ended.  But whiplash injuries can occur in other types of scenarios, generally where one vehicle is not moving and another vehicle strikes it; this could be more than just a rear-end collision but that is just the most common incident.  This impact causes the car occupants’ bodies to move forward violently, but their heads stay in place for a split second longer thus exposing the neck to a sudden hyperextension and hyperflexion.

As a result, there are many different types of injuries that could occur.  These injuries range greatly in severity, and include the following:

• Soreness;
• Neck pain and stiffness;
• Back pain and stiffness;
• Headache;
• Shoulder pain and stiffness;
• Dizziness;
• Fatigue;
• Jaw pain;
• Arm pain and weakness;
• Ringing in ears;
• Visual disturbances;
• Swelling;
• Muscle spasms
• Reduced range of motion for the neck;
• Back and spinal cord injuries;
• Disk herniation;
• Disk bulges; and
• Difficulty sleeping.

The range of injuries for a whiplash injury is very broad, particularly because this is a soft tissue injury which is very difficult to diagnose.  Unless there is structural damage to the spinal cord itself, a whiplash injury will not appear on an X-ray and may not appear clearly on an MRI.  Thus, it may appear that a person’s body is physically fine, however, they may still be feeling significant pain and complications.  This makes litigating a whiplash injury somewhat difficult to prove.

Having an experienced Tennessee car accident attorney will ensure that your rights to compensation are preserved because your attorney will know how to effectively prove your case.  The more whiplash and other soft tissue injuries your attorney has handled, the more he or she will know how to use experts to properly opine to your injuries and how to draft pleadings to make this claim viable.

As an injured victim in a Tennessee motor vehicle accident, you should ensure that you also help yourself by contacting an attorney immediately.  The statute of limitations in Tennessee is a mere one year from the date of the personal injury.  If you attempt to bring a claim past one year, it will be barred.  Also realize as a victim that not all whiplash injuries are caused by the typical high-speed collisions.  In fact, whiplash injuries can occur at very low speeds as well if the given factors are there.  This means that any time you are injured in a motor vehicle accident and have some neck pain, you should have that evaluated by a doctor and speak with an attorney.

Here are Bailey and Greer, PLLC our Tennessee car accident attorneys understand how to effectively pursue your claims.  Our legal team has a proven track record of compassionately representing our clients injured in car accidents which is included in our testimonials page.  Please contact us today to receive your free case evaluation by dialing 901-680-9777.  Remember, you only have one year from the date of the accident to commence your action to recover compensation.