Motorcycle accidents happen for many reasons. Some you can control. Many others you cannot.
For instance, you control your own speed and whether or not you drink alcohol before riding. These are two big reasons for crashes, but you can completely eliminate the risk.
What you can’t do anything about, though, is whether or not another driver turns left in front of you and causes an accident. You can’t prevent them from merging sideways into your bike on the interstate. You can’t stop them from getting distracted by a cellphone and never seeing you as they pull out of a driveway.
You’re at the mercy of those drivers. If they make mistakes and cause accidents, you are almost guaranteed to get injured. According to experts at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, (NHTSA) over 80% of the motorcycle crashes that people report to the authorities had either injuries to the motorcyclist or the death of that motorcyclist.
Car accidents don’t see those types of stats. You have many minor accidents where everyone walks away. With motorcycles, almost every crash means that the rider ends up heading to the hospital — no matter who caused the accident. Those are the real risks that you take when you get on your bike, and as noted above, you can only do so much to control them.
If you do get injured because of another driver’s mistake, you need to know what legal options you have to seek compensation. You could be facing some serious medical bills, lost wages and a whole host of related costs.
