Ah, the perils of motorcyclists.
Without doubt, there is no seasoned motorcyclist anywhere in California who couldn’t stand up at a safety-related venue and readily recount an instance — likely, multiple instances — where he or she had a very close encounter with the pavement because of the flat-out negligent driving of a motorist in a passenger vehicle.
That is just a given and a fact-of-the-road reality that every motorcyclist lives with. Sadly, it is also of course a reality that regularly results in the fatalities of California motorcycle riders, as well.
Here’s a baseline premise regarding licensed California drivers: Every motorist who is duly credentialed to drive in the state is assumed to be reasonably competent.
Impliedly, that means that drivers’ eyes should be sufficiently focused on the road to see everything that is important. That includes bicyclists, walkers, babies in carriages, stray animals — and, of course, motorcyclists.
It is never excusable for a driver to offer up a defense that he or she “didn’t see the motorcycle.” Negligence is negligence, and it can never be discounted.
We note on the Motorcycle Intersection Accidents page of our website at the Los Angeles personal injury law firm of Scott J. Corwin that motorcyclists are frighteningly vulnerable to the bad driving behaviors of other motorists, especially at intersections.
Negligent drivers offer up countless excuses seeking to justify deficient skills and to shield themselves from liability against the injuries that their substandard driving inflicts upon bikers.
We hold them accountable, with our premise being that licensed motorcyclists driving responsibly have just as much right to the road as anyone else.
Motorcyclists injured through third-party driving negligence have a legal right to compensation. That is an important right to pursue to help defray accident-related expenses and to help convey a message that unprincipled — and often glaringly bad — driving behaviors are flatly unacceptable on California roadways.
