Passenger Injuries from Motorcycle Accidents
As a passenger on a motorcycle, you are at risk not only from the negligent conduct of other motorists but from the individual driving the motorcycle. Like the driver or operator, you do need protective clothing including a full-face helmet, leather jacket, pants, gloves and boots if you wish to minimize the chances of sustaining a serious injury or worse.
Motorcycle accidents happen from a variety of factors:
- Motorist turning into you at an intersection
- Motorist emerging from a driveway or roadway into your path of travel
- Poor road conditions
- Inclement weather
- Unsafe lane splitting
- Excessive speed and inability to negotiate a sharp curve or bend in the road
- Failing to stop at a traffic light or stop sign
- Impaired driving
- Distracted driving
Riding on the back of a motorcycle can also expose yourself to more severe injuries along with the fact that you have no control over the motorcycle, do not have handlebars to grasp and may be unaware of an impending collision.
Injuries include:
- Concussion
- Facial fracture
- Dental fractures
- Facial injuries and scarring
- Burns from sliding on the roadway
- Skull fracture
- Internal injuries
- Broken limbs
- Broken pelvis
- Spinal cord injuries
- Traumatic brain injury
- Back and neck injuries
Your claim as an injured passenger for injuries could be against the motorcycle operator if his or her actions were deemed negligent and were the cause of your accident, whether it was a single vehicle accident or not. Negligence is a cause of action whereby individuals are held to a certain standard of care. In this instance, the bike rider must obey all traffic laws and ride cautiously while being on the lookout for hazards. If the operator made an unsafe lane change, was speeding and lost control of the bike or otherwise failed to exercise reasonable care in operating the bike, then you may have a cause of action for negligence against the operator.
If another vehicle was involved, you might include the motorist in your claim if the driver was negligent in failing to see your bike, turned into your path of travel or was otherwise driving unsafely, which was a contributing cause of the accident. You can include any other actors whose failure to use due care contributed to your accident. Along with the bike operator and/or another motorist, you might have a claim against a municipality if the roadway was poorly maintained. Should the bike have a defect that can be attributed to the manufacturer or designer or was not properly serviced by a mechanic, then those parties may be included in your claim as well.