Motorcycle Accident Lawyer Blog

One third of all motorcyclists killed in motorcycle accidents were speeding. Half of all fatal motorcycle accidents involved alcohol. Along with speeding and driving under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol, dangerous driving behaviors are a major cause of many motorcycle accidents. These behaviors include failure to yield, failure to change lanes properly, failure to observe a safe distance, passing on the shoulder, and weaving in and out of traffic.

If you add the risks involved in riding a motorcycle such as road hazards like potholes, oil slicks, puddles, debris and uneven pavement it is understandable why motorcycle accidents have been on the increase since the nineties. Motorcycles are smaller visually and more likely to be obscured to other drivers in their rear view and side view mirrors.

A motorcycle has no doors, no roof, in some instances no airbags and no safety belts, therefore no rider protection. Inclement weather and driver inexperience also contribute to a rise in motorcycle accidents and fatalities.

All these facts cannot dampen the enthusiasm many feel for riding on the open road on their machines and experiencing the exhilaration only riding a motorcycle can deliver.

If you or someone you care about was injured or killed in an accident involving a motorcycle, please contact a motorcycle accident attorney in your area today to learn about your legal rights.

The Department of Transportation (DOT) requires that all helmets sold in the U.S. meet the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) 218. Every year DOT does compliance testing to check that helmets are meeting this standard. Many states also have laws requiring the use only of these helmets.

However, there are helmets sold that do not meet this standard -- they are sold as novelty items and some realize they are unsafe but some do not. People wear them anyway.

Features to Look For in a Safe Helmet

• A strong chin strap that is riveted to the helmet
• A weight of three pounds, not less
• An inner lining of polystyrene foam about an inch thick
• No projections on the helmet exterior larger than 2/10 inch
  

Labels to Look For

1. There should be a sticker on the back of the helmet's outside surface with "DOT" on it. There are also fake DOT stickers, sold separately and attached to a non-complying helmet.
2. So also look inside the helmet for a Snell label or an ANSI label (American National Standards Institute). If the helmet meets the standards of one of these private, non-profit organizations, the chances are good that it also meets the DOT standards.
3. There should be a manufacturer's label somewhere on the helmet that gives the manufacturer's name, the model and size, the month and year it was made, and the materials it was made from. The presence of this label is a good indication that the helmet is compliant.
   

No single label is sure proof that a helmet is compliant, but if all the labels are there and the helmet has the features listed above, you can be confident.

Wearing a helmet does not of course guarantee you will never be injured. But it does reduce your chances of a brain injury, and these are among the most devastating injuries a person can sustain. They can cause countless disabling conditions, depending on exactly which part of the brain was hurt, and how badly, and can even paralyze you for life.

If you have been severely injured in a motorcycle accident and would like to know more about your legal rights and options, please contact us for a highly-qualified motorcycle accident attorney.

Attempts to discover and tabulate the cost of motorcycle injuries nationwide run into many problems. There are many types of cost such as long-term medical costs, long-term disability, short-term wage loss, lost quality of life, and acute medical costs. Of those, the only costs that have received much attention so far are the acute medical costs.

A Problematic Project

The U.S. Department of Transportation National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) did a study of the literature on motorcycle accident injury costs. They reviewed 25 studies, most published in the 1990s, and immediately ran into the many problems that make this task difficult. Some are:

• Most studies have not specified what year’s dollars they used to report costs
• Costs vary widely among the states
• Some include physician fees as well as hospital charges but many do not
• Some try to measure actual costs and others use hospital charges, which are typically much higher – e.g., one study in California found that hospital charges were about two-and-a-half times as high as actual costs

Helmets Lower Costs

However, one thing all the studies had in common was that they found higher costs for riders who had not been wearing a helmet. Those who had been wearing one had lower acute medical costs. However the difference between these categories varied among the studies, from ten percent difference to 200 percent difference.

Some Cost Findings

Fatal cases incurred lower costs, as treatment stopped when the rider died. In head injury vs. no head injury:

• Those admitted to a trauma center paid an average of $43,214 for head injury treatment but only $15,528 if there was no head injury
• Those admitted to a hospital with a head injury paid an average of $22,490 but those with no head injury paid $11,430

Comparing helmet use vs no helmet use, non-helmet wearers paid:

• An average of 1.38 times as much as helmet-wearers when admitted to a trauma center
• An average of 1.63 times as much as helmet-wearers when admitted to a hospital
• An average of 1.23 times as much as helmet-wearers when admitted to an emergency room only

Those figures are averages of the various study figures, some of which included physician costs and some of which included only facility charges.

The finding that helmet use reduces medical costs is not new. In spite of the ongoing controversy about helmet laws and the known risks of riding without a helmet, many riders still prefer to ride bare-headed. Part of the joy of motorcycle riding is the sense of freedom and a helmet does reduce peripheral vision and head movement and does make the head feel hot.

If you have been severely injured in a motorcycle accident and would like legal assistance, please contact us today for an experienced motorcycle attorney.