Bowling Green Motorcycle Accident Lawyer

Being involved in a motorcycle accident can be a frightening situation. On top of the physical vulnerability that a rider faces when involved in an accident, the anxiety associated with riding again can be significant. When people riding motorcycles are hit by people driving cars or trucks, the results can be life changing. Bowling Green, OH motorcycle accident lawyers can try to work with individuals who have been injured in accidents to obtain the compensation that they deserve. If you have experienced injuries from a similar collision, contact a distinguished personal injury attorney as soon as possible.

Common Causes of Motorcycle Accidents

Unfortunately, there is no shortage of ways in which the irresponsible actions of a driver, mechanic, vehicle manufacturer, or even local government body can directly lead to a catastrophic motorcycle wreck. While this is far from a comprehensive list, here are some of the more common sources of motorcycle-related injuries that our experienced attorneys have helped file suit over in and around Bowling Green before.

Excessive Speed

For both motorcyclists and people inside all other types of motor vehicles, going over the posted speed limit greatly increases the risk that you will lose control of your vehicle, not have enough time to react to an unexpected hazard, or otherwise cause an avoidable traffic accident to occur. On top of that, the higher the speeds involved in a motorcycle wreck are, the more force is likely to be imparted on the motorcyclist involved, which means more serious injuries leading to more catastrophic losses.

Driving While Impaired

It is against the law for anyone to operate a motor vehicle in Ohio with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) over 0.08 percent or while meaningfully “impaired” by alcohol or drugs in any other way. Despite that, a shocking number of people still get out on public roads without full control over their physical and mental faculties, which means they are far more likely to end up causing a wreck than they would be if they were sober and clear-headed.

Driving While Distracted

While it is not yet criminalized to the same extent drunk driving is, distracted driving can be just as dangerous and just as likely to result in a negligent driver colliding with a law-abiding motorcyclist. Texting—and doing other things with a cell phone, smart phone, or tablet—behind the wheel is a particularly common form for distracted driving to take, but it can also mean driving while eating and drinking, applying makeup, reading a map, or simply talking to someone else in the passenger seat.

Failure to Check “Blind Spots”

Every motor vehicle has “blind spots” around it where the driver cannot easily see other vehicles and people, and unfortunately, many motorcycles and their riders fit completely inside the blind spots on an average commuter car. If a driver fails to use their mirrors, turn their head, and use everything else at their disposal to check their blind spots before turning, merging, or switching lanes, they might wind up causing a motorcycle accident with devastating consequences.

Not Adjusting for Weather/Road Conditions

Rain-slicked roads—let alone iced-over ones—provide much less traction than dry ones, and conditions like fog, smoke, or even high winds can affect how a vehicle operates. Drivers are expected to compensate for conditions like these by slowing down, turning their headlights on, and keeping an extra-close eye out for obstacles, and anyone who collides with a motorcyclist because they failed to do this may be considered liable for ensuing injuries and damages just like they would be if they had committed a traffic offense.

Dealing With Common Motorcycle Crash Injuries

Just like they can happen in many different ways, motorcycle crashes in Bowling Green, OH can also lead to various types of injuries, each one of which can make for a slightly different personal injury claim. Once again, a member of our Charles E. Boyk Law Offices legal team can help take effective action over any of these common injuries from a motorcycle wreck, provided the injury is serious enough to require some type of professional medical attention.

“Road Rash”

While it may not be as debilitating as some other injuries listed here, widespread scrapes and deep cuts from skidding on asphalt during a motorcycle crash can be extremely painful and surprisingly complicated to stop from causing long-term disfigurement.

Soft-Tissue Injuries

Hands, feet, arms, and legs can be yanked hard in different directions and at awkward angles during a motorcycle accident, potentially leading to muscle tears, tendon strains, ligament sprains, and other “soft-tissue” injuries which can take months to fully heal and may require invasive surgery to correct.

Broken Bones

Depending on how and where a motorcyclist is hit during a traffic collision, they may sustain fractures in the bones of their legs, feet, pelvis, ribs, or skull. Even in relatively low-speed crashes, a rider throwing their arms out to break their fall as they are knocked off of their bike can lead to painful and debilitating breaks in the arms and hands.

Spinal Cord Trauma

Because motorcyclists do not have the frame of an enclosed motor vehicle or, really, anything else protecting them from taking the full force of a motor vehicle impact, they are especially susceptible to experiencing damage to the spinal cord if they are struck in the back or neck, which can lead to permanent and irreversible paralysis.

Traumatic Brain Damage

Likewise, blows to the head or face during a motorcycle wreck can easily lead to a traumatic brain injury (TBI) which causes lifelong losses of sensory, cognitive, and/or motor function. While motorcycle helmets are only required by Ohio law for riders and passengers under the age of 18, wearing a properly fitted and secured safety helmet at all times while on a motorcycle can do a lot to reduce your risk of sustaining this particularly catastrophic type of injury.

Loss/Amputation of Limb

Especially severe motorcycle wrecks may result in the loss of a hand, foot, or entire limb, potentially due to it being trapped between the frame of the motorcycle and the negligently operated vehicle which crashed into it.

Bowling Green Motorcycle Laws

Most motorcycle accident cases in Ohio are centered around the legal concept of negligence. Simply put, negligence is when a person with a duty to protect others, fails to act with reasonable care to protect others around them. Taking an example of a car driver not looking before changing lanes and colliding with a motorcycle rider. This results in the motorcyclist separating their shoulder. There are five elements of a negligence claim such as duty, breach, cause, scope and damages. A Bowling Green, OH motorcycle accident lawyer can try proving all five of these on behalf of their potential client.

In certain instances, a person has a responsibility to protect other people. This is known as the duty of care. All drivers of cars and motorcycles have a duty to care for the well-being of other drivers and pedestrians. In this example, duty is clearly present. A breach of duty occurs when a person takes an action, or fails to take an action, that constitutes a failure of the duty of care. In the example, if the driver of the car failed to properly check their blind spots before changing lanes and causing a collision, a breach of the duty of care may have occurred. This is the element of negligence most often contested in motorcycle accident cases.

What Damages Can Be Included in a Motorcycle Accident Claim?

Someone found liable for causing a motorcycle crash through “negligence” can be made to pay financially for all injuries and damages stemming directly from that crash. This can include both “economic” losses with objective financial values and “non-economic” losses, which must be valued based on your own subjective experiences, as well as past and future losses relative to when you start the litigation process.

Specific damages that often play a role in this type of case include:

  • Costs of all medical care needed to treat accident-related injuries, including things like physical therapy, wheelchairs, and travel expenses to and from doctors’ appointments
  • Lost work income, benefits, and/or long-term earning ability
  • Vehicle damage not already covered by insurance, plus other out-of-pocket expenses and property damage stemming from the accident
  • Physical pain and discomfort from injuries
  • Mental anguish and trauma from injuries and/or the accident itself
  • Lost overall quality of life, potentially including lost “consortium” with a spouse

A skilled motorcycle accident lawyer in Bowling Green can provide more specific information about “compensable damages” for a particular claim during a free and confidential consultation.

What is the Role of the Potential Client?

The plaintiff must show that the injuries were caused by the accident. Insurance companies will often argue that the injuries were pre-existing and that the accident had nothing to do with them. The injuries must have been foreseeable considering the circumstances. In this case, injuries resulting from motorcycle accidents with cars are foreseeable. The plaintiff must have suffered actual physical harm. Here, the separated shoulder is certainly physical harm.

Fighting Back Against Allegations of “Comparative Fault”

Even if you sustained a serious injury as a direct result of a motorcycle wreck, you can prove that someone else’s negligence was the primary cause of that wreck, and list all the “damages” you need to recover for while also assigning a fair financial value to them, you may still not have everything you need to file a strong civil claim. In addition to showing that someone else was to blame for your injuries, you may also need to prove that you yourself were not to blame for causing them.

According to Ohio Revised Code § 2315.33, which establishes the “modified comparative fault” system followed by courts and insurance companies handling personal injury claims here, an injured plaintiff pursuing compensation for their ensuing losses can be assigned a percentage of “comparative fault” if they contributed to causing their own accident through their own negligence. For example, if you did not signal properly before changing lanes on a highway and then were hit by a drunk driver, the drunk driver would likely still hold most of the fault for the accident, but you might be found partially at fault based on your own minor violation of traffic law.

Any percentage of fault assigned to a plaintiff along these lines can then be held against them as a proportional reduction from their final damage award. To continue the previous example, the failure to signal might result in a motorcyclist being assigned 20 percent of the total fault for their accident, in which case they would only be allowed to recover for 80 percent of the injuries and damages they sustained through that incident.

Additionally, if someone is found to hold 51 percent or more of the total fault for an accident, they are barred by the aforementioned statute from seeking any civil recovery whatsoever for injuries they sustained in that particular accident. This is the case even if someone else was also negligent in relation to the incident, and it is what distinguishes Ohio’s “modified comparative fault” system from the more generous “pure comparative fault” systems adhered to in some other states. Working with a Bowling Green, OH motorcycle wreck attorney is the best way to maximize potential compensation and minimize any roadblocks along the way.

Personal Injury Statute of Limitations

Even if these elements are met, there is still one hurdle to cross over. That hurdle is the statute of limitations. This concept places a time limit on when a plaintiff may file suit against a defendant for negligence. This limit is two years from the time of the accident. While this may seem like a long time, simply recovering from injuries suffered in a motorcycle accident may take years. If the two-year limit passes, not only can the court no longer hear the case, but the insurance company will no longer settle. Whether the accident happened today or a year ago, time is clearly of the essence, injured parties should contact Bowling Green motorcycle accident lawyers about their case.

Taking Action Over a Fatal Motorcycle Crash

No motorcycle accident is easy to file suit over, but crashes that cause fatal injuries to a motorcycle rider or passenger are especially challenging in both legal and personal terms. If you lost a family member under circumstances like this, you may have grounds to participate in what is known as a “wrongful death” claim in their name, but this claim will work differently from a standard motorcycle accident case in a few key ways.

Most notably, you will not actually be allowed to file a wrongful death lawsuit after a fatal motorcycle crash in Bowling Green unless you are the deceased person’s “executor” or “personal representative” nominated in their will to manage their affairs. Whoever this representative is, they can pursue compensation through a wrongful death case specifically for losses sustained by surviving family members of the deceased person, such as lost financial support, lost care and companionship, lost household services, and emotional anguish.

Typically, only a deceased person’s spouse, child(ren), and/or parent(s) can receive money through this sort of claim, but other family members like grandparents and siblings can sometimes participate in a wrongful death suit if they can show that the death in question caused them to suffer at least one compensable loss. A compassionate legal professional from Charles E. Boyk Law Offices can offer further guidance about how these claims work and, once retained, guide through every step of the legal process.

How Legal Counsel Can Help

All motorcycle accident cases are unique, but there is a general sequence of events that you can expect. The most important thing to do at the scene of the accident is to contact the police. Not only will this ensure that you receive all necessary first aid and emergency care, but the police will also be required to produce a report at the scene. This report is excellent, impartial evidence of what happened during the accident and is key to negotiations with insurance companies.

The next important matter is to ensure that you get better. Once again this serves a dual purpose of not only improving your physical health, but also produces evidence of the physical and mental injuries. When Bowling Green, OH motorcycle accident lawyers have this evidence, they can attempt to negotiate a settlement on your behalf. Most cases end at this stage and few go to trial. If the case does go to trial however, lawyers will form a well-reasoned complaint, examine all the evidence and prepare you to testify.

Contact a Bowling Green Motorcycle Accident Attorney for Assistance

Being involved in a traffic accident while on your motorcycle is a traumatic experience that, all too often, has life-altering and even life-threatening repercussions. Even if you were not doing anything wrong, you might still suffer debilitating injuries—not to mention the immense financial, personal, and psychological losses that come with them—solely because someone else near you was negligent.

You have a right to demand fair financial recovery after being injured through another person’s negligence, and a Bowling Green motorcycle accident lawyer from Charles E. Boyk Law Offices will be the steadfast ally you need to achieve the best possible result from your civil claim. Call today to schedule your free consultation and learn more about our “No Fee Promise,” where you do not pay us a cent unless we first get you a fair settlement for your damages.

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