What You Should Know About Motorcycle Crashes
The first thing you should know about motorcycle crashes is the fatality rate in these cases is twenty times higher than the overall vehicle collision fatality rate. This startling difference colors the settlement process in motorcycle crash claims. More serious injuries mean more money is at stake and, as a result, insurance companies are even stingier.
Here’s another fact you should know about motorcycle crashes. The average attorney-negotiated settlement is over three times higher than the average non-attorney-negotiated settlement. In other words, motorcycle crash victims who don’t partner with a Tampa personal injury lawyer almost literally leave money on the table. These victims need every dime possible to pay accident-related bills and move on with their lives.
Motorcycle Crash Injuries
We mentioned the severity of motorcycle crash injuries above. Some of these serious injuries, which are either life-threatening or life-altering, include:
- Head Injuries: Helmets reduce the number of trauma-related head injuries. But they don’t affect the number of motion-related head injuries. When riders fall off their bikes and land hard, their brains slam against their skulls, causing permanent brain damage.
- Internal Injuries: The same violent motion causes internal organs to smash and grind against each other. Since internal organs don’t have protective skin layers, slight abrasions bleed profusely. This internal bleeding is hard to detect and even harder to stop.
- Broken Bones: Shattered leg bones are very common in motorcycle crash cases. Usually, victims’ legs are pinned between onrushing cars and their own motorcycles. As a result, specialized doctors must surgically reconstruct these bones. Also as a result, physical therapy is longer and more expensive.
Because of these serious injuries, the average injury-related medical bill exceeds $40,000. A Tampa personal injury lawyer obtains compensation for these bills and other economic losses, such as missed work. Compensation is also available for noneconomic losses, such as pain and suffering.
Liability Issues
This compensation is available if a Tampa personal injury lawyer proves negligence, or a lack of care, by a preponderance of the evidence, or more likely than not. Two basic negligence theories are available:
- Ordinary Negligence: All drivers have a duty to watch for motorcycles and avoid crashes if possible. When they drive aggressively or while impaired, they breach that duty of care.
- Negligence Per Se: Safety laws also establish the duty of care. So, if a tortfeasor (negligent driver) violates a safety law, such as the DUI law, and that violation substantially causes injury, the tortfeasor is liable for damages as a matter of law.
Driver negligence causes most motorcycle crashes. Defective products, such as defective tires, cause about 10 percent of motorcycle crashes. Usually, manufacturers are liable for damages as a matter of law if a design or manufacturing defect substantially causes injury.
Settlement Procedure
Preparing for a mediation settlement conference is almost exactly like preparing for trial. A lawyer must have an airtight case that anticipates and refutes all insurance company defenses, such as comparative fault.
Mediation is a court-supervised negotiation session. Each party has a duty to negotiate in good faith. Since insurance companies cannot issue “I’ll see you in court” ultimatums, mediation is about 90 percent successful in Florida.
Rely on a Detail-Oriented Hillsborough County Lawyer
Injury victims are entitled to important financial benefits. For a confidential consultation with an experienced personal injury lawyer in Tampa, contact Kobal Law. We routinely handle matters throughout the Sunshine State.
Source:
crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/Publication/813466
