Welcome to another edition of Claim Your Justice Facebook Live. Today we’re going to be talking about motorcycle accidents, and the injuries that result from those motorcycle accidents. You can reach us online at claimyourjustice.com, over the phone at 847-434-3555, or on Facebook.
Drivers on the roads aren’t going to be used to seeing the motorcycles because they’ve all been hibernating for the winter. The spring months, namely the end of April and early parts of May are when the highest frequency of motorcycle accidents occur, and people are seriously injured.
I love motorcycles, I have friends, family, coworkers, and neighbors who are avid motorcycle drivers. So this is a topic that is very near and dear to me. I’ve had several cases where people have been injured on motorcycles, some not so serious, some very serious, so I take this matter very personally. I want to make sure the community out there knows what to do in the event of a motorcycle-related injury.
It’s not a childhood rhyme or riddle. It’s something that a client told me many years ago. I believe in loud pipes save lives. The motorcycle exhaust system is designed to have something, I think, called baffles on it. That loud noise you hear when a motorcycle passes by is coming from the exhaust system and it’s intended to let other drivers know that a motorcycle is out there. I know some people may think that loud pipes are annoying, but I think the motorcycle community out there should practice “loud pipes save lives” because they do.
Sadly, it’s a growing number each year. The last year that data was compiled was 2021 and it was more than 6,000. Think about that. Someone goes out in the morning, they breathe in the fresh air. They can’t wait to get on the motorcycle. They go out and their family gets a tragic call that their relative, friend, or family member died in a motorcycle accident. More than 6,000 of those calls were made just in 2021, and the number keeps growing. Especially with gas prices going up and motorcycles becoming more practical.
Once a client contacts us about themselves or a family member who has been seriously injured in a motorcycle accident, we first want to make sure the client is going to get all the medical treatment that they deserve. Sometimes there is so much medical treatment involved, the person needs to be retrained on how to walk, or someone may be paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair. We need to make sure they are taken care of at the hospital, and that they go through rehab.
My primary goal with any client who’s injured seriously in a case like this is to make sure they get the medical treatment that they deserve. If the person is on public assistance there may be some challenges to the extent of the medical services that they’re entitled to. My job is to step in and say, wait for a second, this person is seriously injured and we’ve got to get them help.
Goal number two is I want to secure the motorcycle. So what does that mean? The motorcycle accident happens, the client is taken to the hospital, and the motorcycle is left sitting on the ground for a tow truck to load on a flatbed. The tow truck will take it to the body shop or the tow yard, and leave it there.
I want that motorcycle, I want it for two reasons. Reason number one is you may want to get it tested. Perhaps the cycle malfunctioned because it was out of use over the fall and winter months, they take it out for the first time and perhaps the mechanic didn’t tighten up what they need to tighten up. I want to be able to investigate that because I want to see if I have another target defendant. The second reason is, well we’ve all heard the expression that a picture says 1000 words, and it’s true. However, if I have the motorcycle, and I can see the mangled damage or even some blood spatter from the incident on the motorcycle, I can show that motorcycle to a jury in a potential jury trial.
A picture may be worth 1000 words but the motorcycle could be worth millions of dollars in extra value because the jury could see the devastation that the client may have suffered.
I see a lot of intersection cases. A motorcycle accident case we’re representing a client on now was using a left turn pocket, turning onto a street. He’s going southbound and wants to go eastbound, and a driver coming out of westbound traffic on the street is turning eastbound and doesn’t even pay attention. Runs right into our client. Maybe the motorcycle was harder to see, I don’t know. Fortunately, our client was wearing a GoPro.
Another accident I see is a driver in a car or truck switching lanes and there is a motorcycle in that lane they’re switching into and the driver doesn’t pay attention. Maybe they are distracted, maybe the motorcycle was in the blind spot, etc. So that’s another type of frequent situation.
We also have cases where a driver is going too fast and the motorcyclist either slows down or their speed isn’t what the driver of the vehicle thinks, and they run into them from the rear putting the motorcycle down bad. Those are the three most common fact patterns we see. During the next session, I want to talk about the rights of a passenger who’s on a motorcycle when the motorcycle is involved in an accident. We’ve had a couple of cases like that and there are extra additional rights that the passenger will have. Stay tuned for that.
Remember, SJ Injury Law is here to protect you, your family, and your friends. Anytime you’re seriously injured in a car, truck, motorcycle accident, workers’ compensation, slip and fall, construction, or any type of incident where you think you’re seriously injured. Contact us at 847-434-3555 or online at claimyourjustice.com. We look forward to the next SJ Injury Law live session. Thank you for your time.
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