When an Arizona motorcyclist gets hurt or killed in an accident, there are unfortunately many people, including some law enforcement officers, who are quick to assume that the accident is the fault of the motorcyclist.
However, the reality is not nearly so clear-cut.
For instance, throughout the years, the highest percentage of motorcyclist fatalities has consistently involved multi-vehicle accidents.
In 2018, 3,119 motorcyclists died in multi-vehicle accidents. By contrast, only 1,866 people died in single-vehicle motorcycle accidents.
In other words, in 2018, 2 out of 3 motorcyclists who died suffered injuries in a multi-vehicle accident and only 1 out of 3 died in a single-vehicle accident.
In the last 5 or so years, the trend has been consistent, with around 60 percent of motorcycle fatalities being attributed to multi-vehicle accidents and around 40 percent being attributed to single-vehicle accidents.
Granted, the fact that a motorcyclist died in a multi-vehicle accident does not always mean that it was the other driver’s fault. However, many times, this is precisely the case.
For instance, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA, has stated that, usually, when a car and a motorcycle collide, it is the diver of the car that has intruded on the right-of-way of the motorcyclist.
These sorts of motorcycle accidents happen for a number of reasons. For instance, distracted driving is ongoing problem in Phoenix and throughout Arizona, as many motorists refuse to put down their phones and other technology devices and just focus on the road.
Also, many drivers simply are not paying attention and looking out for motorcyclists, even though the small size of motorcycles warrants special attention from other drivers.
In other cases, drivers may not be familiar with how motorcycles differ from cars and thus underestimate how much following distance motorcyclists need or misgauge how quickly the biker is approaching an intersection.
The point is that a motorcyclist who gets hurt, or the family of one who gets killed, may have options for pursuing compensation from the other driver for that driver’s negligence.
