Unique Aspects of Virignia Motorcycle Accident Cases

Motorcycle accidents are very similar to auto accidents, and can result in the same sort of personal injury cases. There are few unique aspects of motorcycle accidents however, which make it more important to work with a motorcycle accident attorney who has experience working with these specific types of accidents.

Motorcycle Accident Cases

Motorcycle accident cases, just like auto accident cases, are still going to be basically negligence cases. They will basically be alleging that the other driver, the person who caused the accident, failed to exercise ordinary care. What that actually means in the context of a motorcycle accident might be that the driver failed to properly check that there was a clear lane if they were changing lanes. A lot of motorcycle accidents happen while a vehicle is changing lanes and didn’t look for the motorcycle.

Injuries in Motorcycle Accidents

One of the biggest differences between motorcycle and auto accidents is the type of injuries that the riders suffer. Motorcycle accidents on highways, for instance, almost always include an ejection from the bike. There is the original impact when the rider may have a broken leg, a broken arm or a broken collarbone from the initial impact, but then they are usually thrown from the bike as well, which is another impact and causes other injuries.

Often with these accidents, the head injuries that occur are when the rider either strikes the ground, another vehicle, or a road sign, and that injury a lot of the time doesn’t actually happen with the initial impact.

Injuries from motorcycles are a little bit different than the average passenger vehicle accident. While all of the same sorts of injuries can occur in both motorcycle and auto accidents, it is much more common that there are head injuries in motorcycle cases.

Other types of injuries that are also common are broken ribs, punctured lungs, broken bones, head injuries, brain injuries, and serious lacerations that can require tens, if not hundreds, of stitches to repair.

Considerations of Negligence

Other things also make motorcycle accidents different from car accidents. For example, when people may try to make a turn and misjudge the speed of a bike. Sometimes it’s harder to judge how quickly a motorcycle is traveling on the highway, and if they are out in the intersection on a highway, they may think they have more time to clear than they actually do.

In a situation like that, it is likely that the defendant would try to argue that there was contributory negligence for speeding on the part of the motorcycle rider. In that type of situation it is important to find witness testimony to establish that the motorcycle was not in fact speeding, but that the person just did not leave time to adequately clear the intersection or failed to yield the right of way to the motorcycle. Those are two things that influence those types of cases.

Another thing is that a lot of the times people will not see a bike turning and will either run a stop sign or fail to yield to a bike that is making a turn. Motorcycles are smaller than vehicles and people sometimes do not see them or are not on the lookout for them, especially at night. Motorcycles have one headlight instead of two and that reduces the visibility a bit. It is good for riders to take steps to have additional lighting on their bikes or to make sure that they drive defensively, which is good for all drivers but even more so on motorcycles.