According to the latest figures of the Department of Transportation, in 2007 there were 7.1 million motorcycles on the road. The National Traffic Safety Administration reports that 5,154 motorcyclists were killed and 103,000 were injured in 2007. About half of the bikers killed were over the age of 40. 20 percent of crash fatalities occurred in the under 30-year-old group.

Motorcyclists are about 37 times more likely to die in a motor vehicle traffic crash than the occupants of passenger vehicles, and 8 times more likely to be injured. In 2007, half of all motorcycles involved in fatal crashes collided with another type of motor vehicle, such as a passenger car, a pickup truck, an SUV, or a minivan. In 2007, motorcyclists accounted for 13 percent of total traffic fatalities, even though they made up only about 3 percent of all registered vehicles in the United States. In over 75 percent of motorcycle-motor vehicle collisions, the motorcycle was struck in the front. Only in about five percent of the crashes was the motorcycle hit in the rear.

In over 50 percent of motorcycle-motor vehicle crashes, the motorcyclist was injured or killed by the other vehicle not yielding the right of way to the motorcycle while the vehicle was making a left turn in front of the motorcycle, which was going straight, passing, or overtaking the vehicle. 70 percent of motorcycle-motor vehicle accidents happen in intersections, when the left-turning driver fails to yield the right of way to the on-coming motorcycle. In multiple vehicle accidents, the driver of the other vehicle violated the motorcycle’s right of way and caused the crash in 2/3rds of the cases.

The second most common method of injury involving a motorcycle occurs when the motorcycle and other motor vehicle are proceeding in the same direction, such as when the motor vehicle makes an unsafe lane change and hits the motorcycle, or pulls out from a side road, driveway, or where it is parked at the side of the road without properly looking back to see if a motorcycle was approaching. The vehicle driver may not be paying attention to the road and traffic beside him or her, or the motorcyclist may be riding in the driver’s blind spot, and the driver fails to adequately check his or her blind spot before changing lanes or making a turn.

Motorcycle drivers and their passengers are at a distinct disadvantage when they get hit by a passenger vehicle. The motorcycle weighs thousands of pounds less, and has few of the safety devices the modern car has in case it gets into an accident (although one motorcycle manufacturer is making one model with an airbag). In its September 2007 “Fatal Two-Vehicle Motorcycle Crashes,” the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that among fatalities in two-vehicle crashes involving motorcycles and passenger vehicles, 98 percent of the fatalities in two-vehicle crashes were motorcycles riders, while only 2 percent of the fatalities were occupants of the passenger vehicle.

More than 80 percent of reported motorcycle injuries result in injury to or death of the motorcyclist(s) (the operator and his or her passenger, if any). The motorcycle itself provides no head protection to the operator or passenger. Ejection from the motorcycle is a common event. If a motorcycle comes to a sudden stop and the rider and/or his or her passenger is ejected from the motorcycle, the motorcyclist will forcibly strike any objects in the path as well as the ground.

The “Hurt Report” (formally known as the “Motorcycle Accident Cause Factors and Identification of Countermeasures”) is the most intensive study of motorcycle accidents ever commissioned. Although it was released in 1981, it is still considered the gold standard of all studies into the causes of motorcycle accidents. According to the Hurt Report, approximately three-fourths of all motorcycle accidents involved a collision with another vehicle, which was most often a passenger car. In two-thirds of multiple vehicle accidents, the driver of the other vehicle violated the motorcyclist’s right-of-way and caused the collision.

According to the Hurt Report, the failure of motorists to detect and recognize motorcycles in traffic is the predominating cause of motorcycle accidents. The driver of the other vehicle involved in the collision with the motorcycle did not see the motorcycle before the collision, or did not see the motorcycle until it was too late to avoid the collision.

The Hurt Report revealed that intersections are the most likely place for the multiple vehicle accident involving a motorcycle and another vehicle. The other vehicle makes an unsafe turn in front of the motorcycle, thereby violating the motorcyclist’s right-of-way, and often violating traffic controls. Most motorcycle accidents occur during a short trip associated with shopping, errands, friends, entertainment or recreation, and the accident is likely to happen in a very short time close to the trip origin.

The visibility of the motorcycle is a critical factor in multiple vehicle accidents, and accidents are significantly reduced by the use of motorcycle headlights (on in daylight) and the wearing of high visibility yellow, orange, or bright red jackets. Motor vehicle drivers often don’t see a motorcyclist before the accident because they tend to look for other cars, not motorcycles. Further, because of its smaller profile, a motorcycle is harder to see and it may be harder to estimate the motorcycle’s speed.

The motorcyclist’s riding pattern is different from a car’s driving pattern. For example, a vehicle driver may ignore a piece of road debris as being harmless, while that same piece of road debris may be deadly for a motorcyclist. Traffic, weather, and road conditions require a motorcycle to react differently than the driver of a passenger vehicle, hence it is more difficult for the driver of the passenger vehicle to judge and to predict cues that may require the motorcyclist to take evasive action.

Weather is not a factor in 98 percent of motorcycle accidents. Fuel system leaks and spills occur in about 60 percent of motorcycle accidents, creating an undue fire hazard.

The median pre-crash speed for a motorcycle involved in an accident is 29.8 miles per hour, while the median speed at the time of the crash is 21.5 mph. The typical motorcycle accident gives the motorcyclist less than 2 seconds to complete all collision-avoidance action.

Half of the injuries to the motorcyclist are to the foot, ankle, lower leg, knee, and thigh-upper leg. The use of heavy boots, jacket, gloves, and other protective gear is effective in preventing or reducing abrasions and lacerations. Groin injuries are sustained by the motorcyclist in at least 13 percent of the accidents, which is typified by a multiple vehicle collision in frontal impact at higher than average speed. Injury severity increases with speed, alcohol involvement, and motorcycle size. The most deadly injuries to the motorcyclist are to the chest and head.

A higher percentage of two-vehicle crashes between a motorcycle and a passenger car occur in the daytime rather than the nighttime. The highest number of crashes during any one day is on Saturday, both day and night.

Injuries resulting from a motorcycle accident with another vehicle include death of the operator and/or his or her passenger, traumatic brain injury (TBI), broken necks and backs, broken shoulders, broken feet and ankles, broken legs and arms, abrasion burns, soft tissue damage (ligaments, tendons, and muscles), and more.

What if the motorcyclist didn’t have a license to operate motorcycles on public roads but the accident was the other driver’s fault? About one in every four or five motorcycle operators does not have a valid motorcycle license. However, the mere fact alone that the motorcyclist didn’t have a license generally makes absolutely no difference. What matters is how the motorcyclist was riding his bike at the time of the accident. If the motorcyclist was obeying all traffic laws, the issue of whether or not he or she was licensed does not matter. Of course, the insurance company for the driver of the vehicle that hit the motorcycle will try to make a major issue out of the fact the motorcyclist was unlicensed, and will argue that the failure to have a motorcycle license shows that the driver is inexperienced in operating a motorcycle and therefore was partially or wholly at fault for the accident. (Insurance adjusters grab onto any straw they can.)

Suppose you (the motorcycle operator) were speeding at the time of the accident; does that prevent you from getting compensated from a careless (“negligent”) driver who hit you? When both parties in an accident are negligent, the doctrine of “comparative negligence” applies. This means that your monetary recovery from the other driver will be reduced by the percent of your fault. For instance, if your speeding was 25 percent responsible for the accident, then your recovery will be reduced by 25 percent. So if you had, say, damages of $100,000, your recovery would be reduced by $25,000 to $75,000. Of course, if your speeding was the sole cause of the accident, you will not be entitled to any recovery. On the other hand, if your speeding played no part in your accident, your award will not be diminished at all.

California law requires all motorcycle operators and their passengers wear helmets that meet the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 218 (FMVSS 218), the performance standard that establishes the minimum level of protection helmets must provide each user. The NHTSA estimates that helmets are 37 percent effective in preventing fatal injuries to motorcyclists. This means that for every 100 motorcyclists killed in crashes while not wearing a helmet, 37 of them could have been saved if all 100 had been wearing helmets.

Thus, although a helmet saves the life of every 37 of 100 motorcyclists who get into an accident, you still have a 67 percent chance of sustaining serious head injury and traumatic brain damage even if you were wearing a properly-fitted government-approved (approved helmets have a DOT [U.S.Department of Transportation] sticker on them) helmet at the time of the collision. Some states have repealed their helmet laws and when they have done so, the motorcycle rider rate of fatality increases significantly. For example, after Pennsylvania repealed its helmet law, the rate of helmet use by riders involved in crashes decreased from 82 percent to 58 percent. After the mandatory helmet law was repealed, motorcycle-related head injury deaths in Pennsylvania increased by 66 percent, and head-injury hospitalizations increased by 78 percent.

In California, if a motorcyclist was not wearing a helmet at the time of the crash as required by law, the negligent driver of the car that struck the motorist will argue that the motorcyclist would not have been killed or as seriously injured had he or she been wearing a helmet, an argument the defense lawyer is well within his or her rights to make.

If you have been injured or a loved one killed in a multiple vehicle accident due to the carelessness of another person, you should contact an experienced personal injury law firm as soon as possible. When deciding on which attorney or law firm you should hire to represent you, you should be guided by several factors. First of all, you should choose someone with experience in your type of injury. Second, you will want a lawyer or law firm that is competent, able to handle the case. Third, you want a lawyer or law firm with integrity. Fourth, you want to retain a lawyer or law firm that has the highest ethical standards.

It is also important to contact an experienced personal injury law firm promptly, as the law firm may want to send its own investigators to examine the evidence before it is lost or changed. In a multiple vehicle accident involving a motorcycle and a passenger car, the lawyer’s investigator may want to go to the scene of the accident to inspect and take pictures of the damaged motorcycle, the damage to the vehicle, the accident site, and any dangerous condition that caused or contributed to the accident, especially before there is a change in the condition of the area or vehicle. Finally, the investigator will want to talk to any and all witnesses to the accident as soon as possible, while the facts are still fresh in their minds. The lawyer may want to hire an expert in traffic accident reconstruction to recreate exactly how the accident happened.

Our law firm will make sure that you obtain appropriate and thorough medical care for your physical, emotional, and psychological injuries suffered as a result of the accident. We will also do everything possible to ensure that you obtain full compensation for your medical expenses, pain and suffering, mental anguish, property damage, lost wages, loss of enjoyment of life, and all of your other injuries and damages.

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