Philadelphia Top Injury Lawyer Blog

Investigation into a September motorcycle accident that caused serious personal injury to a motorcycle driver and his passenger has led to a felony charge. Last week police charged the Trenton, New Jersey woman who caused the horrific personal injury accident with a felony count of operating a vehicle without a valid license. The woman was driving a friend's Toyota when she ran a stop sign last September and plowed into a motorcycle driven by a Levittown, Pennsylvania man. The crash crushed the left legs of both the 52-year-old driver and his wife, a passenger on the motorcycle. The woman who caused the personal injury accident just northeast of Philadelphia was also charged with failing to stop at a stop sign and careless driving.

Serious personal injuries often occur when cars collide with motorcycles in Philadelphia accidents. As in the case of the Pennsylvania couple, motorcycle drivers and their passengers may suffer horrific, life-changing personal injuries when collisions occur. Serious personal Injuries can require weeks of hospitalization and rehabilitation resulting in exorbitant medical bills, loss of income when injuries keep victims from working, extreme family hardship and severe physical and mental trauma.

Because many people believe the Easy Rider myth that motorcycle drivers are aggressive and reckless, proving fault and recovering damages when serious Philadelphia personal injury motorcycle accidents occur is more complicated and difficult than with auto accident claims. Philadelphia personal injury lawyers must work to find witness to the motorcycle accident and obtain reliable interviews. To counter arguments that the motorcycle driver was speeding or driving recklessly, Philadelphia personal injury attorneys may have to interview the motorcycle operator's friends and co-workers to establish his character and safe driving record. Accident reconstruction experts may need to be consulted. When Philadelphia motorcycle accidents result in serious personal injuries, Philadelphia personal injury attorneys work to see that the victim recovers the money necessary to cover his medical bills and rebuild his life.

In the wake of a tragic New Year's Eve car accident that killed two in Philadelphia comes a report from the Institute for Transportation Engineers that an estimated 120 people die every day on U.S. highways in "vehicle-related crashes." Car accidents, truck accidents and motorcycle accidents are the leading cause of death among Americans aged 1 to 34 according to statistics from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Interestingly, people who seriously fear being victimized by robbery, rape or assault crimes fail to associate similar danger with driving.

In an interview with Scripps Howard News Service, Russ Rader of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety had this explanation for the phenomenon:

"People don't generally think of driving as a risky task. They think that crashes happen to other people, not themselves. There is a researcher who calls it the illusory zone of immunity. When we do things day after day that are routine, we don't think of them as being particularly dangerous. But of course, the statistics show that getting behind the wheel of a car is probably the riskiest thing any of us do on any given day."

Over the past decade, more than 41,000 people have died in car accidents nationally and thousands more sustain serious personal injuries, many in the Philadelphia area. The AAA Foundation (American Automobile Association) calls car accident and truck accident deaths a "public health crisis" on its website. Highway safety experts lament that it is a crisis that seems to be flying under most people's radar. Safety experts point out and Philadelphia personal injury lawyers agree that daily car accidents kill far more than the occasional train wreck or airline disaster but rarely garner major headlines.

In the blink of an eye a motorcycle accident can change your life. If Mark Hamill had not been in a serious motorcycle accident after starring as Luke Skywalker in the successful Star Wars movies, actor Harrison Ford might never have become a Hollywood leading man. Director Steven Spielberg once confided that until his accident it was Hamill, not Ford, who was slated to star in the hugely popular Indiana Jones movies.

Even when helmets and protective clothing are worn, injuries to the driver and any rider can be extensive in a motorcycle accident. Unlike car collisions, there is nothing to protect your body in a motorcycle accident. Serious head trauma, broken bones, cuts, bruising and seriously abraded skin are common motorcycle accident injuries. Often cars and trucks fail to allow adequate stopping or maneuvering distance around motorcycles, crowding drivers out of lanes into the path of another vehicle or off roads into dangerous debris and gravel. Sometimes inattentive drivers simply fail to see a person on a motorcycle, but there are some drivers who appear to target motorcycles, creating dangerous situations that lead to serious accidents.

Motorcycle accident claims can be more complicated to resolve than automobile accident claims. Personal injury lawyers must be persistent in representing their clients. Because motorcycle drivers are perceived as aggressive and reckless, defense attorneys will try to prove that the cyclist was speeding or driving recklessly. Questions will be raised about the use of protective clothing and helmets and whether the driver is properly licensed. In Pennsylvania, protective headgear is not required if the motorcycle driver is 21 years old or older and has either been licensed to operate a motorcycle for at least two full years or has completed a PennDOT or Motorcycle Safety Foundation motorcycle safety course.

Rosenbaum & Associates, Philadelphia's personal injury specialists, have been very successful in recovering money for motorcyclists injured in accidents.