Common Injuries in Motorcycle Accidents
Common injuries may include:
- Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBIs): Even with a helmet, riders can suffer concussions, skull fractures, or severe brain damage caused by impact. These injuries can result in long-term cognitive, emotional, or physical impairments.
- Road Rash: Sliding across pavement can scrape away layers of skin, causing painful abrasions. Severe road rash can result in infections, nerve damage, or permanent scarring if not treated properly.
- Broken Bones and Fractures: Motorcyclists often sustain fractures in arms and wrists (from bracing during a fall), legs, especially tibia and fibula, ribs and collarbones, hips, and pelvis.
- Spinal Cord Injuries: Harm to the neck or back can lead to herniated discs, loss of sensation, partial or complete paralysis (paraplegia or quadriplegia).
- Internal Injuries: Blunt force trauma could cause damage to internal organs like the liver, spleen, kidneys, and lungs. Internal bleeding is especially dangerous and may not be immediately noticeable.
- Soft Tissue Injuries: Sprains, strains, and torn ligaments are common as the body twists or is thrown from the motorcycle. These injuries can affect mobility and lead to chronic pain.
- Neck Injuries: Whiplash, cervical fractures, and nerve damage can occur from sudden impact forces. These injuries often require extended recovery.
- Burn Injuries: Contact with hot metal, the engine, or exhaust pipes can cause thermal burns. Chemical burns can occur if fuel or road chemicals come into contact with the skin.
Motorcycle Laws in Colorado
Following the law when you’re riding can help you stay safe and may become part of a disputed fault analysis after a collision. If there is evidence that a traffic-rule violation contributed to your accident, its effect on a claim depends on the crash facts, available evidence, and applicable law.
Important laws that you should be aware of include:
- All riders and passengers under the age of 18 must wear a helmet.
- Eye protection is required for all riders and passengers on public highways. Protective glasses, goggles, or a transparent face shield can satisfy this requirement. Note that a motorcycle windshield alone does not count as adequate eye protection under Colorado law.
- If a motorcycle is carrying a passenger, it must have a footrest.
- Colorado permits motorcycle lane filtering in limited circumstances. Since August 7, 2024, a two-wheeled motorcycle may pass a stopped motor vehicle in the same lane when statutory conditions are met, including a maximum speed of 15 miles per hour and sufficient space for safe passage. The law is scheduled for repeal on September 1, 2027 unless changed by law.
- Lane splitting, which involves riding between lanes of moving traffic, remains prohibited in Colorado.
- Motorcyclists are bound by all other traffic laws and rules of the road, including laws pertaining to stopping, yielding, and speed limits.
How to Prove Negligence in a Motorcycle Accident Claim
Prove the Other Party Owed You a Duty of Care
All drivers in Colorado have a legal duty to manage their vehicles safely and obey traffic laws.
This includes:
- Obeying speed limits and traffic signals
- Yielding the right of way
- Staying alert and avoiding distractions
- Watching for motorcycles and sharing the road safely
Show They Breached That Duty
Next, you must show the driver failed to act reasonably under the circumstances.
Common examples in motorcycle accidents include:
- Failing to yield while turning left
- Speeding or reckless driving
- Distracted driving (texting, GPS use)
- Driving under the influence
- Following too closely
Evidence that helps prove a breach:
- Police accident reports
- Traffic citations
- Eyewitness statements
- Dashcam or surveillance footage
- Cell phone records (in distracted driving cases)
Prove Causation (Their Actions Caused the Crash)
You must connect the driver’s careless behavior directly to the accident and your injuries.
In other words:
- The crash would not have happened but for their actions, and
- Your injuries were a foreseeable result of that behavior
Medical records, professional testimony, and accident reconstruction reports are often used to establish this link.
Prove You Suffered Actual Damages
Negligence alone isn’t enough. You must show real losses.
These can include:
- Medical bills (current and future)
- Lost wages or reduced earning capacity
- Pain and suffering
- Property damage to your motorcycle
- Emotional distress or permanent disability
What Can I Recover If I’ve Been Injured in a Motorcycle Accident?
Unfortunately, many motorcycle accidents are far more serious than accidents involving cars because riders are more exposed. This means that there is a higher chance of experiencing severe injuries from a motorcycle crash, including brain damage, spinal cord damage, and broken bones. Depending on the nature of the injury, the costs can quickly add up.
Prescriptions, in-home or outpatient care, and surgeries can drive your medical bills through the roof, all while you’re trying to deal with the burden of being seriously injured. Colorado motorcycle accident victims may be able to recover compensation. And you can do so without worrying about the added stress of paying your lawyer. At Denver Trial Lawyers®®, we operate on a contingency fee basis. This means that if there is no financial recovery, you will not owe any legal fees.
Economic Compensation
Motorcycle accident victims in Colorado may recover economic damages. These types of damages are for both immediate and future costs. Economic damages cover the monetary amounts you’ve already spent, as well as potential future costs. They can also compensate you for the money you had coming in that is no longer available to you.
For example, economic damages can cover:
- Current medical expenses
- Future medical expenses
- The costs of long-term care
- Damage to your bike
- Lost wages
- Income that you would have made in the future if not for your accident
These damages are similar to the damages recoverable for car accident victims.
Non-Economic Compensation
In some cases, riders injured in a motorcycle accident can recover damages for psychological or emotional distress. Motorcycle accident victims may suffer from depression and anxiety because they are unable to do the things they used to do.
They could also be facing long-term therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder. Damages for non-economic compensation can help victims address their emotional trauma. To understand what kinds of damages you could recover, it’s important to speak with a Denver motorcycle accident lawyer about your case.
Can I Still Get Compensation If I Was Partially to Blame?
Colorado uses comparative negligence to assess recovery in a motorcycle accident, even where you were partially to blame. Comparative negligence means that the court may reduce your recovery by the percentage you were to blame for the accident. It does not mean you cannot receive any compensation.
Under Colorado law, comparative negligence can bar recovery if your share of fault is as great as the negligence of the party against whom you are seeking recovery.
If the accident was primarily your fault, you likely won’t be able to receive compensation. In other circumstances, the court may reduce your compensation by your percentage of fault. For example, if you were 10 percent at fault, you may be eligible for 90 percent of the compensation available, depending on the facts of the case.
Colorado Motorcycle Accident Filing Deadlines
Colorado legislative materials generally identify a three-year filing period for motor-vehicle-related bodily injury or property damage claims. Claims involving a governmental entity and other circumstances can involve different deadlines, so the applicable deadline should be reviewed based on the facts of your case.
Insurance policies may also include notice and cooperation requirements that are separate from a lawsuit filing deadline. Preserve claim documents, medical records, photographs, witness information, insurance communications, and repair records while timing issues are reviewed.
What to Do If You Suffered Injuries in a Colorado Motorcycle Crash
Being involved in a motorcycle accident can be a terrifying experience, especially if you are severely injured in the crash. If you have been in a Colorado motorcycle accident, it’s important that you act quickly to preserve information relevant to your claim.
Our lawyers strongly recommend:
- Filing a police report
- Seeking medical care
- Documenting all medical care and following your doctor’s orders
- Notifying your insurance company of the accident as soon as possible
It’s also important that you begin collecting evidence related to your crash, including:
- Details about the other driver
- The names of any eyewitnesses to the accident
- Photographs of damages and injuries
How Can a Motorcycle Accident Attorney in Denver Help You?
A motorcycle accident attorney can help you with the following, and more:
- Offer objective advice on legal matters: During this critical time, your motorcycle accident attorney can help answer questions that you may have related to the legalities of your case. Your attorney can provide professional advice regarding your claim.
- Handle paperwork and records: There is a tremendous amount of paperwork when it comes to filing a motorcycle accident case. Paperwork can include insurance company files, court filings, and materials for trial preparation. An attorney can handle paperwork and work to submit it to the appropriate parties.
- Help obtain relevant paperwork: Apart from handling paperwork, an attorney can help you obtain medical records and identify documentation relevant to the case.
- Negotiate with insurance companies: Motorcycle accident attorneys can communicate with insurance companies and handle settlement negotiations. There are many complexities involved when dealing with insurance companies.
- Evaluate your case: An attorney can evaluate your case and discuss the range of potential monetary compensation. This takes both financial and non-financial factors into consideration, including emotional distress, medical treatments, medical bills, and lost wages.
- Represent you in court: Victims may end up having to go to court in complicated situations in which insurance companies do not agree. An attorney familiar with your case can represent you in court and provide legal support during this time.
- Provide guidance throughout the process: Our attorneys at Denver Trial Lawyers®® care about each of their clients. We want you to be able to concentrate on emotional and physical healing while we address the legal matters in your case. Taking on a case by yourself can be complicated and stressful.
Don’t wait to discuss your motorcycle accident with an attorney. Early legal review can help preserve evidence and identify timing issues. Contact our team of Denver motorcycle accident lawyers today to discuss your case.
We Are Members of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum®
Denver Trial Lawyers®® has helped numerous motorcycle crash victims and their families pursue compensation. We understand what it’s like to be a motorcyclist on the road. When you’re in a motorcycle accident, we can prepare your claim based on the evidence and circumstances involved.
We’re caring, compassionate attorneys and experienced trial advocates. Our attorneys have taken over 100 cases to trial. In one case, we helped a Colorado woman recover $1.5 million for her losses. We’ve also helped clients recover between $500,000 and $700,000 for traumatic injuries they experienced from their accidents, including:
- Traumatic brain injury: One of the most serious types of injuries a motorcyclist can experience. These injuries require immediate and long-term follow-up care.
- Spinal cord injuries: Vertebral injuries from a motorcycle accident, including compressed vertebrae, may cause pain and numbness. Victims of spinal cord injuries may need surgery.
- Bone fractures: Motorcycle accident victims commonly experience bone fractures. Broken ribs, shoulders, and collarbones are all significant injuries that require serious care.
Case results depend on the facts, injuries, liability evidence, insurance coverage, and other circumstances of each matter. They do not predict the outcome of another case.
Don’t wait to get help! If you have suffered injuries in a motorcycle accident, contact our firm today for a free consultation with our motorcycle accident attorney in Denver.
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