Motorcycle Accident Lawyers in Colorado Springs

A motorcycle claim follows the same law as any other vehicle crash, with the same three-year deadline. What differs is how the rider is treated. Riders are more exposed, so injuries are more serious, and insurers and jurors often start from an assumption that the rider was speeding or reckless. Much of a motorcycle case is replacing that assumption with evidence.

How these crashes happen

One of the most common serious motorcycle crashes is a car turning left across the rider’s path. Others include drivers changing lanes into a rider, rear-ending a rider stopped in traffic, or opening a door into one. In each, the driver usually says the same thing: “I didn’t see them.” A driver who failed to see a motorcycle that was there to be seen wasn’t keeping a proper lookout, which is the driver’s negligence.

Answering the reckless-rider assumption

Because Colorado reduces a recovery by the injured person’s share of fault, and bars it at 50 percent, insurers work hard to put fault on the rider. Speed estimates, lane position, and visibility become contested. Physical evidence, such as damage patterns, scene measurements, and video, and a reconstruction that relies on them, are the answer. So is the rider’s history: training, endorsement, and gear.

Helmets

Colorado requires helmets only for riders and passengers under 18. Adults may ride without one legally, and not wearing one is not evidence that the rider caused the crash. Insurers may still argue that a helmet would have reduced a head injury. How far that argument can go is unsettled in Colorado, and it has no bearing on injuries a helmet wouldn’t have affected, such as a broken leg.

Passengers

A passenger on a motorcycle can have claims against the other driver and, where the rider was at fault, against the rider’s own insurance, much like a passenger in a car.

Insurance

Many riders carry lower limits than drivers do, and serious motorcycle injuries quickly exceed a typical at-fault driver’s policy. Underinsured motorist coverage on the motorcycle policy, and sometimes on a car policy in the household, is often essential. See uninsured and underinsured motorist claims.

How we handle motorcycle claims

We get the scene documented and the bike preserved before it’s repaired or salvaged, obtain video and witness accounts, and use reconstruction where speed or visibility is disputed. We identify all available coverage early, because in a serious motorcycle case the limits often decide what can be recovered.