Motorcycle accidents tend to be associated with a wide variety of injuries. Some of them may affect only one part of the body, while others may result in extensive damage with long-term consequences. If you or a loved one have been impacted by injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident, Lawyer T. Madden recommends you seek legal representation to help you recover the compensation you deserve to cover your medical expenses and other losses Your lawyer can help you with the legal side of the accident while you take the time to focus on recovering your health.
Main Injuries in Motorcycle Accidents
Unlike accidents in cars, where the driver and passengers may be protected by a seatbelt, motorcycle riders tend to sustain much more dramatic injuries mostly because they usually crash against vehicles that are larger and heavier than their own. Here are just some of the things you can expect will happen in a motorcycle accident, particularly when the rider is not wearing any type of protective gear.
Road Rash
Road rash happens when exposed skin rubs over the pavement. It’s common to have large swaths of missing skin that get rubbed off and are then covered by gravel, small rocks, and any type of debris that may be found on the road.
Road rash can happen on arms and legs, but it can also affect the face, with parts of the skin of your nose, cheeks, or lips getting rubbed off.
Many cases of road rash will eventually require skin grafts to replace the lost skin. This means taking skin from other parts of the body and placing them over areas that have lost all skin in a lengthy and painful procedure.
Broken Bones
Hitting the pavement at high speeds will result in bones breaking. You may end up with broken kneecaps, collar bones, ribs, ankles, arms, or legs. Compound bone fractures also tend to be common in this type of accident.
Bruising and Internal Bleeding
Motorcycle accidents usually result in bruising of some type. You may end up with a black eye but may also have internal bleeding that may call for immediate life-saving surgery. That is why it’s so important to get a full medical checkup after a motorcycle accident since many internal injuries are not immediately noticeable, and not treating them quickly may result in death.
Dismemberment
While guard rails are designed to help keep cars on the road, when a motorcycle crashes against one, it can turn into a deadly weapon with the ability to lop off arms, hands, legs, or even entire torsos. Accidents can happen in an instant, and you may not be able to avoid hitting the guard rail no matter how much you try.
Skull Fractures
When motorcycle riders are tossed from their bikes, they risk suffering a skull fracture when they hit the pavement. Some may have some protection because they are wearing a helmet, others do not wear one, and others are injured no matter how much protection they wear. Hitting the pavement with your head may result in injuries that lead to brain damage. Although there are different degrees of brain damage, the reality is that any injury to the brain can have extensive and long-lasting consequences on a motorcycle rider’s life, leaving them with mental confusion, the inability to answer coherently to questions, and more.
Death
Losing your life is the ultimate price to pay for a motorcycle accident. However, statistics show that motorcycle riders are much more likely to die in a motorcycle accident than people driving a car. In any other vehicle, you are surrounded by thousands of pounds of aluminum, steel, and plastic that can protect you from the outside world. Also, car riders have seat belts and airbags to protect them and give them a safety cushion when an impact does occur.
Nowadays, cars are designed to absorb the force of an impact and crumple in specific places instead of transferring the inertia to the driver and its passengers. On the other hand, motorcycles are much more dangerous by leaving the rider completely exposed to the slightest hit or bump against another vehicle.
It’s also common for motorcycle riders to receive further injuries as they fall to the ground and hit a road barrier, a stop sign, or another moving vehicle. They may even be run over by another car that is unaware of what just happened or cannot react on time and get out of the way.
