When we purchase an item online or in a store, we expect it work as advertised and to not cause us harm. When we buy a new car, for example, we don’t expect for the airbags to cause injury by deploying improperly. When we buy a new children’s bicycle, we don’t expect for it to break on the second day of use and cause a child to become hospitalized.

In instances like the above, we have the right to file what’s referred to as a product liability claim or lawsuit against the product manufacturer. Doing so can enable a family to have an easier time paying for hospital bills and other associated medical costs as well as ensure the product manufacturer creates safer products and properly prioritizes consumer safety.

It is important to diagnose and treat birth injuries as soon as possible.  Left untreated, birth injuries can lead to developmental problems, brain trauma, and even paralysis.  There are several action symptoms that can be observed while your baby is still in the hospital that immediately indicate a birth injury.  An arched back while crying, breathlessness, excessive drooling, lethargy, light sensitivity, and seizures are just a few.

Health related symptoms include anemia, fever, hearing loss, low heart rate, low oxygen in the blood, persistent coughing, poor weight gain, wheezing, and jaundice.  In most birth injury cases, babies will exhibit both action and health-related symptoms.

If you were recently injured in a work accident, you’re likely concerned about what kind of recovery time you’ll need, how you’ll be able to pay for medical treatment, how you’ll get paid for time spent off work, and how your employer will react. There’s a great deal to consider after getting a workplace injury in Mississippi. Mississippi’s workers’ compensation program exists to help injured workers, but the program can be difficult to navigate.

Your first step is to notify your workplace immediately about the accident and the fact that it occurred while working. You may be requested to visit certain doctors or follow up with your work’s insurance agency as soon as possible. Be sure to follow these steps as they’re requested, but as with any serious injury, you should first prioritize getting the medical care you need to begin your recovery process.

Maritime accidents are accidents that happen on coastal or river waters. They can occur on fishing vessels, cargo vessels, passenger vessels, cruise ships, offshore oil rigs, or other types of vessels that spend more time on the open water than at dock. Maritime accidents can happen for a variety of reasons and involve injuries that may or may not be severe, but some of the most devastating types of maritime injuries are those that occur due to negligence.

Accidents caused by negligence—also sometimes defined as careless, reckless, or wrongful actions—are those that could have been prevented had the guilty party been acting responsibly, correctly adhering to safety guidelines, or been more watchful. Here are some of the most common causes that lead to maritime injuries in Mississippi and all along the Gulf Coast:

It’s easy to assume that just because you are a cautious and careful driver, the other drivers around you on the road will be also.  Assuming that another driver will stay in their lane, safely react to a road hazard, or wait to safely pull out onto a major roadway is a dangerous mistake.  Other drivers on the road are often distracted, rushed, or drive aggressively.  Looking ahead and keeping your eyes moving can help you anticipate the actions of other drivers and stay safe.

What is Defensive Driving?

Defensive driving is a set of driving skills and a style of driving that allows you to avoid collisions and defend yourself against irresponsible drivers, drunk drivers, and bad weather conditions.  Defensive driving reduces the chance that you will be caught off guard by an unexpected hazard and increases your chance of reacting appropriately and avoiding an accident.

Car accidents lead to hundreds of deaths every year in Mississippi. Many of these accidents are completely avoidable. By examining the common causes for deadly car crashes in our state, we can discover ways to potentially avoid these crashes and make our roads safer. Even preventing a few accidents can save lives and encourage others to follow the same example.

Here are the top 5 causes for car accidents in Mississippi:

Drunk Driving

Getting behind the wheel while impaired—by either alcohol or drugs—is deadly. According to statistics posted by Mississippi’s Department of Transportation, drunk driving fatalities accounted for 31% of all traffic-related deaths in the state during 2012. This figure hasn’t decreased significantly over the years and remains one of our leading causes of accident fatalities.

Semi trucks are a necessary evil on American roadways.  Commerce as we know it is made possible by the transportation of goods in the trailers of semis.  But semi trucks present a dangerous threat to drivers of passenger cars and pickup trucks.  About 450,000 accidents between semi trucks and passenger vehicles happen on United States roadways every year, killing about 5,000 people.  Of those deaths, more than 75 percent were in the passenger vehicle.

Semi trucks are dangerous to passenger vehicles because of their size.  An average passenger vehicle weighs 3,000 pounds.  The legal maximum weight of a semi truck is 80,000 pounds.  Simple physics dictates that when a small object and a large object collide, the small object will experience more damage.  This is why when semi trucks and passenger vehicles are in an accident, more damage is done to the passenger vehicle and the people riding inside.

Between Biloxi’s casinos and the casinos along the Gulf Coast, there’s no denying the fact that Mississippi has some of the best places to gamble in the United States. Our state’s casinos have historically helped the Mississippi River area prosper, granting residents precious jobs back when the region was still developing. Thousands of local Mississippians and visitors alike enjoy gambling, eating out, and enjoying time with family and friends in our casinos every weekend.

Despite the success of our local casinos, it’s only natural to wonder if the same casinos we enjoy on a Friday or Saturday night out with friends are safe. Gambling involves three elements that are often seen as risky—money, alcohol, and large crowds of people. Combining all three is considered a recipe for disaster in many situations. What makes our casinos safe? How safe are they really?

A major train and charter bus collision occurred this afternoon (Tuesday, March 3rd 2017) just before 2:30 PM at a railroad crossing in Biloxi, Mississippi. It happened when a charter bus was heading north on Main Street and a CSX freight train was heading east. The two collided, resulting in a major accident.

According to SunHerald’s coverage, roughly 50 passengers were on the bus. The charter bus was from Austin, Texas. Several injuries have been reported at this time, some of which occurred to passengers who were under the bus when the train hit. According to an eyewitness, the bus was stuck on the tracks for roughly five minutes before the train arrived.

This is the second time in a period of two months that a train has collided with a vehicle in Biloxi. In January of this year, a major truck accident occurred between a Pepsi delivery truck and a CSX freight train. The truck became stuck on the steep incline at the railroad tracks and couldn’t get out of the way. The train tried to stop but was unable to do so in time.

This month, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) released its annual list of what it has determined to be the safest new car models on the market in the coming year. The organization crafts increasingly-high standards for its annual lists, with the highest-rated cars being deemed either a Top Safety Pick or, higher still, a Top Safety Pick+.

This year, the IIHS list of the safest new cars is shorter than it has been in recent years, due to additions made to the criteria IIHS uses to rank the vehicles. IIHS rates hundreds of models as being “good,” “acceptable,” “marginal,” or “poor” in a range of categories including the car’s performance in various types of front-end crashes, the strength of the car’s roof, the head restraint and seat quality, and the quality and ease-of-use of car seat anchors. Last year, the safety organization added a rating of front crash prevention to its ranking, making it so that only cars with front crash avoidance systems that were rated as “advanced” or better could earn the highest safety designation that IIHS awards. This year, the organization added a rating of headlights to the overall safety rating, assessing headlights on the scale from “good” to “poor” based on qualities like glare production and sufficiency of illumination. In explaining the addition of headlight ratings, IIHS president Adrian Lund stated, “automakers have not focused enough attention on whether or not headlamps are aimed such that they light up the road for the driver ahead of them.” Historically, the IIHS rating of “Top Safety Pick” is sufficiently sought after that manufacturers will improve the suite of safety features available on their vehicles to earn the designation, making it so that these ratings increase the availability of safety features market-wide.

Many new vehicle technologies will help keep you safe in a crash by offering advanced collision protection through side airbags or crumple zones, or will keep a crash from happening by automatically applying the brakes or offering other front-end crash avoidance measures. While these technologies can go a long way in stopping a crash from happening, they’re no replacement for cautious, attentive driving. Drivers who rely too heavily on crash-avoidance systems while behind the wheel can still be held liable for injuries they caused through distracted or otherwise negligent driving.

If you’re hurt in a crash in Mississippi and want help getting the compensation you need to recover, contact the Gulfport personal injury lawyer Corban Gunn for a consultation on your case, at 228.284.68059.