The vast majority of motorcycle accidents occur when the vehicle operator simply does not see the motorcycle and either changes lanes into them, or cuts them off in such a way that will result in an actual collision, or if the motorcyclist has time to react and avoids the collision, they end up laying the bike down. That means the motorcyclist is making contact with the roadway, and is going to sustain serious injury depending upon the speed they were going and the time they have to react. That is by far the vast majority of the accidents that happen between vehicles and motorcycles and in most cases warrants contact with a DC motorcycle accident lawyer.
Inattentive driving by the automobile operator, including high speed, unsafe lane change, failure to stop in time to avoid a collision, and any of the other reasons that car operators are involved in accidents with other cars. It can be alcohol related, it can be speeding, it can be distracted driving because of texting and cellphones. But there are unique causes of accidents involving motorcyclists because of the difficulty in seeing motorcycles on the roadway.
One of the issues with motorcyclist claims is that there is limited coverage that a motorcyclist can get from insurance companies under their own policy for paying medical bills and lost wages. The motorcyclist does not have the ability to obtain uninsured or underinsured motorist insurance of any significant amount, because insurance companies limit the amount of insurance that a motorcyclist can obtain, and this becomes a problem for the motorcyclist if the at-fault automobile driver does not have sufficient insurance to cover the injuries that they’ve caused.
Many times when we purchase insurance for our own vehicles in the event that we caused an accident, we also purchase uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage in the event that we are involved in an accident which is not our fault, and the person who is at-fault doesn’t have any insurance or doesn’t have enough insurance. With uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage, we can go under our own policy based upon the coverage that we’ve purchased. The amount of coverage that you can purchase as a motorcycle owner and operator is usually limited to a maximum of $50,000.
That is very insufficient coverage if you’re involved in an accident as a motorcyclist that someone else caused. If they don’t have enough insurance, then you’re going to be stuck, not having had the ability to purchase sufficient coverage yourself given the severity of injuries that one experiences from being involved in a motorcycle accident. That is a unique problem with motorcycle operators, because insurance companies consider the operation of a motorcycle high risk and so they limit their exposure to coverage. That affects the ability of the motorcyclist to purchase sufficient insurance to cover themselves if someone else causes the accident but doesn’t have coverage.
