Motorcycle Accident Claims

With the rising number of motorcyclists, despite the regular generalisations of motorcyclists always being the cause, rather than the victim, of crashes - there is much evidence to support the government's campaigns for drivers of other motor vehicles to be more vigilant in making themselves aware of motorcycles themselves and possible situations where they may encounter problems with motorbikes or other smaller form of transportation such as a scooter, moped or other powered cycle.

Most people in the UK if asked will normally answer any question regarding motorbike accidents with sweeping generalizations but more recent studies have shown that it is most likely to be either end of the motorcycles rider's scale that will cause an accident in the UK, not the general riders. In other words, the individuals most likely to cause a motorcycle crash are young inexperienced riders or older riders but with much more powerful machines than your average user. This is self explanatory really and once considered is also quite reasonable to assume even without the actual evidence available. Young riders are probably just as likely to cause a motorbike accident as their car driving counterparts are to cause a car incident. Rash driving and inexperience of the road in general will normally result in more than one motorbike crash (as long as the first is not fatal obviously) either by colliding with another vehicle or object themselves, or by being hit by another road user who did not see them due to the inexperienced motorcyclist positioning themselves incorrectly in a flow of traffic.

Of course, the more controversial motorbike accidents are those involving older drivers. Probably every road user at some point in their lives has almost collided with a motorcyclist driving like a complete idiot and that is the general image that we hold. Of course, we've all probably come across a dozen more car drivers acting like idiots but a possible motor bike accident seems to stick with us much more as the percentage of bad bike riders that we will come into contact with on the UK's roads is much higher than the percentage of bad car drivers so it feels like they are all bad. The usual suspects - overtaking other vehicles even with oncoming traffic heading towards them, driving in between lanes of traffic even though those lanes are still moving and cars are switching lanes, driving around blind corners at high speeds even though there may be stopped traffic round them and so on.

So how does this affect motorcycle accident claims? Unfortunately, when placing actual blame in a motorbike accident investigation a certain amount of bias will be automatically placed against the rider of motorbikes due to these public perceptions of these forms of transport. You have to remember, it is the police that generally provide all the statistics on fatalities and injuries for these studies so they are more than just aware of the likelihood of the incident being the fault of the motor-cycle.

So when looking for someone to blame for your motorbike accident injury you may have a slightly harder time and may have to have more conclusive evidence to prove that you were not the cause of your own demise. But, motorcycle accident compensation itself is not affected by the actual form of transportation. Even though motorcycle injuries are generally more severe than those experienced by car drivers due to how exposed you are, your compensation amounts are not penalised for having chosen to ride a bike.

In summary, motorbike claims are as standard as other road vehicle claims and despite the bias that will inevitably be in the minds of everyone who handles your case, as long as you have the proof and the documentation then your compensation will be obtained and awarded in the exact same manner with the exact same values.

By: Jamie Jaggernauth