Information and Insight for Injured Iowans

I read an obituary the other day; another biker down – at age 36.  The related article detailing the accident made it clear that the motorcycle had the right-of-way and once again a car negligently invaded the biker’s space and now a young, family man is dead. 

We all hear the argument (and it’s getting louder and louder as the insurance industry revs up for another mandatory helmet law crusade):  “motorcycles are dangerous”.    This mantra is really the insurance industry’s crafty way of saying:  “they asked for it”.   You better believe they try to sell this to the juries.  They are smart and do so with subtle, careful words built upon prejudice and propaganda against bikers.   

You have to admit, if a bike goes down the question isn’t:  “are they hurt?”  - rather, the question is “how bad are they hurt?”   But this does not mean that bikers are huge risk takers or that they are assuming and accepting the risk of bad drivers that might be out and about at the same time.   A biker’s choice to cruise the road is not an invitation to run them off of that road.    Most bikers I know and represent simply want to go from Point A to Point B safely and with the freedom and enjoyment only a motorcycle can deliver.  They follow the rules of the road getting there.  If cars and trucks were respectful of other all vehicle’s right-of-way (including motorcycles) so many tragedies could be avoided.    

Some folks drive cars without airbags.  I’ve seen some cars that are held together with coat hangers and a prayer. There are other cars that weigh only as much as a full dressed hog…yet, nobody argues that because these drivers are in vehicles that are more likely to result in harm to the passengers, in the event of an accident, that “they asked for it”.

I just settled a case in which a tractor trailer turned left in front of my biker client.   His head hit the last set of trailer wheels.  He died instantly upon impact but the loss will remain forever.  He was simply going to work – been riding bikes for 20 years. We’ll never know if he would have survived or in what condition if he had been in a car.   But this “what-if” shouldn’t matter.  What matters is that he did nothing wrong and his surviving family deserves fair compensation without any discount just because he was on a motorcycle.

So, if you find yourself adopting the insurance industry mantra, and repeating: “motorcycles are dangerous”  please take a moment to remind yourself – often it’s not the bike, it’s the other vehicles on the road that are dangerous.