Injuries most commonly sustained following car crashes and other road traffic accidents are called whiplash injuries. Your head is suddenly yanked backwards or sideways, affecting many areas of your body, particularly, your bones, discs, muscle tendons, and nerves in your neck. Swelling and inflammation occur following the impact.

The type of car accident that usually ends up in whiplash injuries are rear-end car accidents because of the sudden increase in speed which causes your head to snap back and then forward. Head-on collisions may also cause whiplash injuries, only that the head is jerked forwards then backwards instead of the other way around.

Car accidents are not the only way you could obtain a whiplash injury. Any situation that involves an abrupt change in speed and the neck is not protected one way or the other can result to a whiplash injury. In fact, falling off a horse, a bike or anything else, can cause a whiplash injury.

You will know when you have sustained a whiplash injury when you begin to sense some stiffness in your muscles and pain, particularly in the back, neck, jaw, arms or shoulders. Nausea, blurred vision and difficulty in swallowing have also been reported by persons who have gone through injuries of such nature. Memory loss, impaired concentration, personality changes such as irritability, nervousness and depression may also indicate a whiplash injury; so are sleep disturbances and restlessness. Some of these signs may happen almost immediately following the impact, but sometimes you will not even know you have suffered from a whiplash injury until a few hours or even days later.

Whiplash injuries are diagnosed by way of radiological examinations and medical imaging.

Characteristically these symptoms may last for a period of up to six months, and your doctor may prescribe pain relievers or muscle exercises to deal with the problem. In more severe circumstances, the symptoms of whiplash injuries can go on over a period of several years, and there are even cases when permanent damage is a possibility.

You should know that you are entitled to a whiplash injury compensation claim if you have suffered whiplash injuries resulting from an accident that is not at all your fault. You can ask a personal injury solicitor to help you through with the processing. There is practically no harm in filing for such claims because usually you will not be required to pay any fees at all if you lose the case. In legal terms, this is called no win no fee, meaning, you pay only if you win. In many cases a personal injury solicitor will also be able to offer a 100% compensation guarantee. This means that if your whiplash claim is successful, your solicitor would recover their legal costs, along with a success fee from the third party insurance company. Therefore you do not have to pay anything from start to finish.

There are some precautions you can take when you are on the road which may help to minimize the risk of a collision causing a whiplash injury. This includes making sure you have a properly installed head restraint.