Posts Tagged ‘Wichita motorcycle accident lawyer’

Recovering for Kansas Motorcycle Accident Injuries When You Are At-Fault

Thursday, December 13th, 2012

Some motorcyclists and their families presume that riders cannot recover financial compensation for their injuries if the rider makes a mistake that contributes to a motorcycle collision.  This mistaken assumption is important because operator error is one of the leading causes of motorcycle accidents that cause severe injury and wrongful death in Kansas and throughout the country.  Although mistakes made by an inexperienced rider may impact the amount of a motorcyclist’s recovery, this does not mean it will bar financial recovery by a personal injury victim entirely.

When a motorcyclist makes a mistake that constitutes an unreasonable risk of harm to the rider, the insurance company for the driver of a passenger vehicle will often assert the defense of comparative negligence.  Kansas is one of several dozen “modified comparative fault” jurisdictions.  This rule permits a motorcyclist who is found by a judge or jury to have been negligent by failing to take reasonable care to prevent foreseeable injury to oneself to have a percentage of fault assigned to both the injury victim and the defendant.

While assigning fault to a motorcyclist who was traveling to fast given wet road conditions, for example, may result in a reduction in recovery in proportion to the motorcycle accident victim’s percentage of fault, it will not necessarily result in a complete bar to monetary recovery.  The passenger vehicle may have violated the rider’s right of way at an intersection resulting in the rider losing control when trying to swerve to avoid a collision.  While the rider may have laid the bike down, the judge or jury may determine the rider would have been able to successfully execute the evasive maneuver at a safe speed.

In a situation like the one above, the judge or jury may assign a degree of fault to both the driver who violated right of way and the motorcyclist who was driving at an excessive rate of speed given road conditions.  If the amount of fault assigned to the motorcyclist is 49 percent or less, the rider will have his or her damages reduced according to the percentage of fault assigned to the motorcycle enthusiast.  If the degree of fault assigned to the rider is fifty percent or more, this typically will result in a complete defense so that the rider cannot recover monetary compensation.

Because the issue of determining responsibility and allocating fault between the parties to a Kansas motorcycle collision is complicated, an injured rider should never rely solely on the determination of fault by the police officer who investigates the collision.  Even if the law enforcement accident report concludes that you were at-fault or you were given a traffic ticket, you should seek legal advice from an experienced Kansas motorcycle accident attorney.  Sometimes the preliminary assessment of a Kansas motorcycle accident by a law enforcement officer is inaccurate so our motorcycle accident law firm may conduct an independent investigation, frequently using our own motorcycle accident reconstruction experts.

If you or someone you love has suffered serious injury in a motorcycle accident in Kansas, experienced motorcycle accident lawyer William Cummings is committed to representing motorcycle accident victims in Wichita and throughout Sedgwick County and the surrounding areas of Kansas and seeking the compensation they need to rebuild their lives.  We offer a free initial consultation so that we can answer your questions and evaluate your legal claim so call us today at 316-264-1548.