Drivers who don’t look for motorcycles can cause serious crashes

As a motorcycle enthusiast, you are aware of how your hobby could have a negative impact on your overall health and well-being. An accident in any kind of motor vehicle could be serious, but accidents on motorcycles are often catastrophic.

There are a couple of reasons that motorcycle crashes can be worse than regular vehicle crashes. The first is that motorcycles offer very little protection to your body from the force of impact. The second is that the other vehicle involved in the crash is going to be substantially larger than your own, increasing its ability to cause damage to you and your bike.

Unfortunately, no matter how careful you are with safety, the mistakes of another driver can still leave you vulnerable to injury, ranging from road rash to brain injuries. All too often, the excuse a driver gives for causing a crash with a motorcycle is that they didn’t see the smaller vehicle.

People tend to be overconfident at the wheel

Research has consistently shown that people overestimate their own ability to drive while viewing others as the source of danger on the road. Unfortunately, that overconfidence doesn’t just leave people at a risk for hurting themselves. A driver feeling overly confident may not perform adequate surveillance before making a maneuver, whether they intend to pass another vehicle or are turning around the corner.

Adequate surveillance is one of the most critical practices for preventing collisions between motorcycles and larger enclosed vehicles. People who don’t look closely at the circumstances of the road may make a wrong decision that leads directly to a collision with another vehicle or forces someone else to make a dangerous maneuver to avoid a crash.

Ideally, everyone would be focused on the task at hand when they control a vehicle that weighs thousands of pounds and costs thousands of dollars. Since they don’t, you need to be extra alert yourself to try to avoid those dangerous drivers.

Drivers don’t see what they aren’t paying attention to

Lack of adequate surveillance isn’t the only issue. A driver could, theoretically, look in your direction and completely fail to register the fact that you are there. The human eye and the human mind like to work together to help people make irresponsible decisions.

Your eyes can only process a small amount of the information they gather, and your brain can only devote so much processing energy toward analyzing visual stimuli, especially if you are engaged in a conversation or in another task, such as steering. In order to keep things simple and smooth, you may not always notice all the details around you. Drivers need to make an extra effort to watch specifically for motorcycles, not just large cars.

Failing to pay attention is far from an excuse for causing a crash. Motorcycle riders often experience drastic, life-altering injuries as a result of the negligence of other people on the road. If you wind up hurt in a crash caused by another driver, you have rights under Arizona law. Sitting down to talk with an attorney can help you understand how to hold irresponsible drivers accountable and protect yourself from the financial fallout of a motorcycle collision.

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