Motorcyclists sharing the road with larger, heavier cars are vulnerable to injury when accidents occur. Since motorcycles have no airbags to protect the operator, a car driver's negligence can lead to severe head and spinal cord injuries, amputations or back injuries for motorcycle riders.
In a recent Maryland case, a motorcyclist suffered serious injuries in a crash and had to be transported by ambulance to the University of Maryland's Baltimore shock trauma center. While the authorities are unsure if another vehicle was involved in the incident, in cases where motorcycle crashes are caused by another driver's negligence, the victims are entitled to receive compensation for their injuries.
Drivers are considered negligent when they breach their duty of care to fellow occupants of the road to drive with reasonable caution and drive carelessly instead. If one wishes to prove that another driver was negligent, there are a couple of possible ways to do so. One is to request a copy of any police report produced in response to the accident, which may contain evidence that the other driver was careless. Another is to refer to the "rules of the road" and show that the other driver violated them by, for example, failing to respect a motorcycle's right of way.
Two thirds of accidents involving a motorcycle and another vehicle are the result of the other vehicle failing to respect the motorcycle's right of way. In cases involving that kind of negligence, motorcyclists should be able to receive compensation for their injuries. And other drivers need to learn to pay attention for motorcycles and effectively share the road.
