Proper safety protocol can protect motorcyclists up to a point and should be strictly adhered to, but unfortunately, riding a motorcycle will always be inherently dangerous. If you have been injured in a motorcycle crash and believe that someone else’s actions contributed to your accident, a Swanton motorcycle accident lawyer can assess the facts surrounding the incident. Speak with a skilled personal injury attorney who could advise you of all of your legal rights and responsibilities.
Common Motorcycle Accident Causes and Injuries
Motorcycle crashes often occur because a driver fails to see or make room for a motorcyclist. Other drivers present a large risk to a motorcyclist attempting to ride safely, though they are not the only cause of motorcycle accidents.
A motorcycle has a smaller visual profile than a car and may end up in a driver’s blind spot or hidden in heavy traffic. Drivers might fail to check their mirrors before changing lanes, speed, or drive aggressively, which can easily cause an accident by running a motorcyclist out of their lane or directly colliding with a motorcycle.
Drivers may also be impaired while behind the wheel, and that impairment can endanger other drivers and motorcyclists. Driving while tired or under the effects of alcohol or drugs can reduce a driver’s ability to see and understand their environment and react in time to hazards or other vehicles.
Similarly, distraction can cause a driver to take their eyes off the road when they check their phone or respond to someone in their car. With digital touchscreens in many modern cars and the constant presence of cell phones, drivers are more likely to be distracted, and any distraction can cause an accident.
Factors like faulty parts or hazardous road conditions, may be out of a driver’s control. A Swanton attorney can help determine the exact cause of a motorcycle accident, who might have been responsible, and how an injured person can seek legal compensation.
Due to the lack of steel frame protection on a motorcycle, as well as the large size differences between motorcycles and other motor vehicles, many injuries sustained during motorcycle accidents tend to be serious. Some common motorcycle accident injuries include:
Motor Scooter Collision Statistics
According to the Ohio Department of Public Safety, there were 4,342 motorcycle accidents reported in 2016 in the state of Ohio. 3,232 of those accidents resulted in injury and 202 resulted in a fatality. In other words, nearly 80 percent of motorcycle accidents resulted in injury or death in 2016. By comparison, only 27 percent of other passenger vehicle accidents resulted in injury or death that same year.
It is no secret or surprise that motorcycles are significantly more dangerous for riders than cars and trucks are for their occupants. Part of what makes riding a motorcycle so alluring—oneness with the road and the environment—is also what makes the motorcycle rider vulnerable to serious injury in the event of a crash.
Seeking Financial Protection Following An Injury
After a motorcycle accident, injured individuals need to take steps to protect their financial health by exhausting all of their legal rights. Injuries that result from motorcycle crashes can lead to high medical bills, loss of work, and damage to a victim’s property.
Depending on the circumstances that led to the accident, a person may be eligible to receive financial compensation for pain and suffering, medical bills, and lost wages. Someone hurt in a motorcycle accident could also receive compensation for property damage, such as the value of their damaged motorcycle, and even non-economic injuries, such as pain and suffering and trauma for years after an accident.
The amount of lost wages claimed can include present and future wages, depending on the severity of a victim’s injuries and their line of work. In catastrophic accidents, future earning capacity could be included for a lifetime of lost wages and wages already lost right after the accident and injury.
Life-threatening and chronic conditions resulting from an accident, such as paralysis or decreased mobility, can destroy a victim’s ability to work, care for themselves, and provide for themselves and their family. The injured person may also incur high costs from long-term medical care and possible accommodations. On the side of non-economic damages, disfigurement and continuing mental anguish and distress might also be claimed to make up for a long-term decreased quality of life.
In some cases, victims can even receive what is referred to as punitive damages, which is a financial award that goes above simple compensation for injuries. Punitive damages exist to punish those liable for acts that go above and beyond mere negligence. They can be applied if a judge of jury finds the situation calls for it.
For example, when the person at fault for an accident acted in a way that can be considered “malice or aggravated or egregious,” punitive damages can stack on top of compensatory damages. Damages meant as compensation for economic and non-economic harm generally do not have a cap, but Ohio Revised Code § 2315.21 limits punitive damages at double the other compensatory damages up to $350,000. Punitive damages are determined in a proceeding separated from the rest of the trial, which focuses solely on determining fault and compensation.
A Swanton motorcycle accident lawyer can help injured motorcyclists determine the best way forward in ensuring that they receive all of the compensation to which they are legally entitled.
Making a Motorcycle Accident Claim
Bringing a personal injury claim based on a motorcycle accident will likely involve negligence and specific rules, which is why working with a Swanton attorney from the very start can increase your chances of success in court. Negligence is based on the idea that one person can be held legally responsible for another person’s injuries when their behavior unreasonably caused the harm, even if unintentionally.
Negligence claims usually require proof of four elements: duty of care, breach of that duty, causation, and damages. A plaintiff (the person bringing the case) must show how someone had a duty of care, such as driving responsibly to ensure the safety of others on the road, and that the breach of duty, such as driving while distracted or under the influence, caused their accident and injuries. Those injuries must be expressed as legal damages in the types of compensation mentioned above, such as medical bills, lost earnings, property damage, and pain and suffering.
Bringing your claim requires speed and careful consideration. First, you need to file suit within the statute of limitations, which Ohio Revised Code § 2305.10 sets at two years from an accident. Otherwise, you can lose the legal right to sue completely, and an insurance company might not want to settle a claim and pay benefits without the potential for a lawsuit.
The state uses a system of comparative negligence that assigns fault to anyone involved, including a victim. Per Ohio Revised Code § 2315.33 and § 2307.23, an injured person’s compensation can be decreased proportional to their own fault or completely blocked if they are more than 50 percent responsible for their injuries.
For instance, not adhering to laws and regulations for safety gear could lead to a motorcyclist being accused of comparative negligence by the opposing party. This could result in the victim losing part or all of their compensation.
Motorcyclists under 18 are required to wear helmets, and all motorcyclists and their passengers must wear some form of eye protection. Helmets must meet federal standards under Ohio Administrative Code Rule 4501-17-02, and eye protection can include face shields, goggles, and windscreens mounted on a motorcycle.
Navigating these rules can increase the complexity of a motorcycle accident claim. A Swanton lawyer can work with an injured motorcyclist to determine who caused the accident, what evidence exists to support a negligence claim, and how best to bring the claim in time and for success.
Other Complications with Motorcycle Accident Claims
Understanding negligence as an abstract legal concept is one thing, but bringing a claim can see other complications and complexities based on the reality of a motorcycle accident. For example, an injured person might bring an insurance claim and see that claim denied before going to court.
An insurance company might try to minimize injuries or deny an injury that came from an accident without further proof. Documenting injuries could get an insurance company to pay out benefits or to follow up with a lawsuit when possible and necessary.
Blame might also be turned fully or partially onto the motorcyclist. Motorcyclists can face some bias when riding a motorcycle instead of a car, truck, or other vehicle.
Perceptions of motorcyclists can lead to a belief that this activity is dangerous on its own. Some motorcyclists might flaunt the rules of the road, such as swerving through traffic, speeding, or riding between lanes. Depictions of motorcyclists as gang members can make an injured motorcyclist a less sympathetic plaintiff.
The features of riding motorcycles may give the impression that a motorcyclist assumes a certain risk, even if they legally do not. Motorcycles do not have the same structure or features as a typical car, such as seatbelts, airbags, or even an interior frame. As long as they take care when on the road, motorcyclists do not forfeit the protections of other drivers operating their vehicles safely.
Getting evidence and proving fault for a motorcycle accident can be difficult. Motorcycle accidents can involve complex facts, which are made more difficult to understand when they take place at higher speeds and with only limited witnesses.
Dashboard and helmet cameras can help document an accident, but eyewitnesses may be a major source of showing what happened outside of surveillance footage. However, eyewitness accounts for high-speed accidents may not be able to definitively place fault on a particular party without egregious driving behavior by one driver or the other.
Negligence claims rely on showing a duty of care was breached, and that the breach caused the accident and resulting injuries. A negligence claim can fail if a plaintiff cannot show the other party either breached a duty through their behavior or caused a motorcycle accident. A driver who causes an accident might not take the blame, which may lead to an injured motorcyclist losing out on well-deserved compensation for their injuries.
This combined difficulty of negative perceptions of motorcyclists and complex evidence can create roadblocks to holding a responsible party accountable with an otherwise sound injury claim. A Swanton attorney familiar with motorcycle accidents can help a plaintiff develop clear evidence of the other party’s fault and negligence.
The Role of an Attorney After an Accident
First and foremost, attorneys advocate for their clients both in and out of court. They bring a host of expertise and information to a claim, from gathering evidence and documentation to filing a claim within the statute of limitations.
A victim in a motorcycle accident should take certain steps immediately afterward. First, they should seek medical attention to document injuries and treatment. Next, they should document the scene and alert law enforcement. These actions establish evidence for an eventual claim.
A lawyer can represent an injured person at each of these steps, starting with gathering evidence of how an accident occurred and who was responsible. From interviewing eyewitnesses to obtaining police reports and surveillance footage, an attorney can organize a compensation claim immediately after an accident. An attorney can also ensure a victim documents their medical care and expenses to describe their damages from a motorcycle accident accurately.
Practically, an attorney can also go where a motorcyclist cannot, such as while they recover in a hospital or at home. Instead of a motorcyclist going back to the scene of an accident to take pictures or negotiating with insurance companies trying to handle a claim quickly, an attorney can step in and provide for a victim’s best interests.
While the basics of negligence and some of the complex practical factors involved in making a claim are mentioned above, there is no substitute for a lawyer with deep knowledge and experience. Applying legal rules to a particular situation, victim, and claim is where a Swanton attorney can prove to be a crucial asset.
An injured motorcyclist should prioritize getting good legal counsel as soon as possible. Gathering evidence after an accident while receiving medical treatment, contacting law enforcement, and potentially making an insurance claim can leave a motorcyclist overextended. A lawyer could handle these parts of getting a claim together and ease a victim’s burden overall.
Contact a Swanton Motorcycle Accident Attorney
Swanton motorcycle accident lawyers could properly investigate a motorcycle accident and all resulting injuries. Your lawyer will do everything he or she can in order to get to the truth about whether someone else’s negligence contributed to your accident and your injuries.
Sometimes parties that were not present at the time of the accident are held liable under negligence theories – for example, the manufacturer of equipment on your motorcycle or another’s motor vehicle. Therefore, it is important that you check with a lawyer in order to determine the potential for you to receive monetary compensation for your injuries.
