Prescott, Arizona Motorcycle Accident Lawyers
Prescott, Arizona’s temperate climate and western charm, attract a number of motorcyclists. Unfortunately, many of the drivers they share the road with do not take motorcycle safety seriously, which increases the risk of a serious or fatal collision. As a result, an injured motorcyclist may be saddled with treatment costs, miss out on paychecks during recovery, and experience other damages like pain and suffering.
As experienced Prescott, Arizona motorcycle accident attorneys, our team at Lerner and Rowe can provide you with the legal insight you need to build a solid personal injury claim to obtain compensation. We encourage you to give us a call at 602-977-1900 to schedule a free consultation or complete a FREE online form today. Our team will take this opportunity to determine if your case has merit, approximate the value of your damages, and offer you guidance on the next steps to take.
Why You Should Choose Lerner and Rowe to Represent Your Motorcycle Accident Lawsuit
At Lerner and Rowe, we regularly represent Prescott motorcycle accident clients who have sustained catastrophic injuries caused by a reckless driver. If you have been involved in a dooring accident on Whiskey Row, rear-ended during Prescott’s 4th of July celebrations, side-swiped on Route 69, or otherwise injured in a motorcycle accident, our team can provide vital resources and access to extensive legal knowledge to support your Arizona motorcycle accident lawsuit.
After being injured in a Prescott motorcycle accident, hiring a personal injury lawyer you can trust to negotiate your claim is essential. Our team at Lerner and Rowe actively cultivates this type of relationship with our injured clients by being straightforward about what you can expect to recover for your damages, regularly communicating about your case, and following through on our commitments.
We have spent almost 20 years honing our craft, which has made us exacting motorcycle accident lawyers who can deliver exceptional results. The Arizona personal injury lawyers of Lerner and Rowe have recovered billions worth of total damages by being persistent negotiators for our injured clients. Our services are readily accessible to injured Prescott motorcyclists who need help pursuing compensation for damages like medical bills, lost wages, and loss of quality of life.
Understanding Prescott, Arizona Motorcycle Crashes
About 20% of Yavapai County’s population resides in the city of Prescott, Arizona. Prescott is home to about 47,603 people and attracts an influx of tourists each year for events like Frontier Days, the Bluegrass Festival, and the Prescott Film Festival. The city is also commonly included in lists of Arizona’s best motorcycle rides. With its high volume of out-of-town visitors and appeal to motorcyclists, riders may be at an increased risk of being involved in a crash.
In 2022, Yavapai County reported 135 motorcycle accidents. 112 of those crashes resulted in at least nine fatalities, and 119 injuries. Unfortunately, Prescott has had experience with deadly motorcycle collisions. In October 2022, a motorcyclist was fatally injured on Willow Creek Road after a driver merged into her lane without seeing her in their blind spot.
After being side-swiped by the vehicle, she fell into oncoming traffic and was hit by another vehicle. In March 2023, a teenage motorcyclist was killed while speeding, also on Willow Creek Road, when a driver made a left-hand turn into him. These deadly collisions reaffirm not only the catastrophic potential when a motorcyclist is struck by a heavier vehicle but also the need for drivers to be on high alert for nearby motorcyclists.
Common Causes of Prescott, Arizona Motorcycle Accidents
Motorcycle accidents can primarily be attributed to the actions of reckless drivers, although environmental conditions, defective motorcycle parts, and the standard characteristics of a motorcycle can also contribute to the likelihood of a crash. Motorists in Prescott, Arizona, may fail to detect a motorcyclist in time to react when they are engaged in careless driving behaviors, like rubbernecking, tailgating, or speeding. This is often the result of nothing paying attention to the road or being impaired.
An environmental factor that Prescott drivers and motorcyclists should consider is the impact of the monsoon season. A torrential downpour can cause flash flooding, lower visibility, and significantly impede motorists’ ability to maneuver or brake effectively, increasing the likelihood of a Prescott motorcycle accident. Poor weather conditions do not automatically absolve a motorist of liability. If they were traveling too fast, given the circumstances or failed to use their headlights, a driver can still be found negligent for causing a collision.
In some cases, the negligence of a third party can be responsible for a motorcycle crash. A manufacturer who used cheap materials to construct the wheel axles could be held liable if the faulty parts caused the motorcyclist to crash. Even if a motorcycle is in perfect working condition, its smaller size makes it easier for drivers to overlook a rider in their blind spots and cause a collision. Motorcycles are also less stable than cars, so what would be considered a relatively low-impact collision for a passenger vehicle can be powerful enough to eject a rider or knock the bike over. Some of the most common causes of motorcycle accidents include:
- Reckless maneuvering
- Ignoring traffic laws
- Mechanical failures
- Poor road maintenance
Prescott Motorcyclists Can Sustain Catastrophic Injuries in a Collision
According to the NHTSA, per vehicle miles traveled in 2022, motorcyclists were about 22 times more likely than passenger vehicle occupants to die in a motor vehicle crash and were 4 times more likely to be injured. The high casualty rate can largely be explained by the exposed nature of a motorcycle and the weight disparity between the average motorcycle and other vehicles.
Without a seatbelt to hold them in place, a motorcyclist is easily thrown off their bike. There are no airbags to soften the impact of hitting another vehicle, guardrail, tree, pole, road, or other hard surface.
Most motorcycles weigh between 300 and 600 pounds, meaning that the average passenger car is anywhere from about 7 to 13 times as heavy as the average motorcycle. The gap is even larger for vehicles like semi-trucks, which can weigh over 250 times as much as a motorcycle.
As a result, motorcycles absorb the impact. The combination of a lack of safety features and the motorcycle’s size disadvantage tends to leave motorcyclists with a number of injuries, such as:
- Traumatic brain injury
- Spinal cord injury
- Crush injury
- Whiplash injury
- Soft tissue injury
- Fractured or broken bones
- Amputation
- Deep lacerations
- Contusions
- Road rash
- Biker’s arm
- Severe burns
- Dental and facial injuries
Many motorcyclists with serious injuries face painful treatments, complications, and invasive procedures, with grim long-term outcomes. Getting evaluated by a medical professional as soon as possible can reduce the risk of serious injuries going undiagnosed and potentially benefit your prognosis. It is also a critical step if you plan on pursuing legal action. If you can demonstrate that you sought medical help after you were injured, it can validate that you sustained the injuries in the motorcycle accident and they were as severe as your claim states.
What Damages Are Available in a Prescott Motorcycle Accident Lawsuit
More than likely, your motorcycle accident injury has impacted multiple facets of your life. A personal injury claim can give you the opportunity to recover compensation for your damages. This includes economic damages or losses with monetary implications, like being passed over for a promotion after missing too much work to recover. You may continue to sustain financial losses due to your injuries from the cost of treatment, the limitations placed on your career, and the price of hiring others to perform services for you.
In addition, non-economic damages can help compensate you for emotional costs, like missing out on attending your child’s wedding because you needed surgery to treat your injuries, or intangible costs, like experiencing pain in occupational therapy. Common damages in a Prescott motorcycle accident include:
- Medical bills
- Lost wages
- Replacing or repairing the motorcycle
- Pain and suffering
- Loss of quality of life
- Wrongful death
Why You Need a Prescott Motorcycle Accident Attorney to Negotiate Your Claim
Motorcycle accident claims often face resistance from insurance companies that often believe motorcyclists have reckless tendencies that cause collisions, when in fact the opposite is true. Most motorcyclists are well aware of the risks they face and do their best to protect themselves by wearing helmets, signaling lane changes, and following traffic laws. Regardless of the truth, existing biases can create a tough negotiating position for an injured motorcyclist.
A qualified motorcycle accident lawyer will have practice negotiating effectively under these conditions and have the skills to prove the defendant’s liability, connect the injuries suffered to the damages outlined, and justify the compensation requested for their client’s damages. While this process may sound relatively straightforward, it involves diligently meeting paperwork deadlines, launching an investigation of the crash, reviewing dense medical records, taking depositions, and much more.
They must also find methods to document damages and anticipate the insurance company’s tactics to devalue your personal injury claim. Bringing in a motorcycle accident attorney with this level of ability to represent you also supports the legitimacy of your claim, as it would not be logical for a personal injury lawyer to do the work of negotiating a claim they thought had no basis for compensation.
Frequently Asked Questions About Prescott, Arizona Motorcycle Accident Claims
In a Prescott motorcycle accident claim, the burden of proof refers to the minimum amount of evidence required to demonstrate the defendant’s liability. Personal injury lawsuits are civil claims rather than criminal, which means the threshold needed to convince fact-finders of the defendant’s liability is a preponderance of the evidence. The plaintiff carries the burden of proof as the party seeking financial compensation for the defendant.
In practice, this means that the plaintiff must offer enough evidence to persuade fact-finders like a judge or jury that the defendant is more likely than not to be liable based on their negligence. To quantify this, demonstrating a preponderance of evidence would mean that the fact-finders are satisfied that there is more than a 50% chance that the plaintiff’s claim is valid and deserving of compensation.
Arizona stipulates that anyone on a motorcycle who is under 18 must wear a helmet. So, if you are an adult who was not wearing a helmet when you were involved in a motorcycle crash, you are not breaking the law, but you may have jeopardized your ability to recover full compensation for your damages. The efficacy of helmets in preventing serious or fatal injuries is well documented.
In failing to use one, the defendant will likely argue that you are at least partially at fault for your injuries, even if the driver of the car hit you while they were acting irresponsibly. If this argument for shared liability is successful, a principle called comparative negligence comes into play. As the injured party, you can still be compensated for your damages, but the settlement your motorcycle accident lawyer negotiates for you will be reduced by how much fault you were found to contribute.
Motorcyclists must have a special license or permit to ride in Arizona. Permits are available for riders as young as 15 and 6 months of age, but there are more restrictions on operating locations, conditions, and hours. Arizona motorcyclists who only have a permit cannot ride on highways, ride before sunrise or after sunset, have passengers, or operate in low visibility conditions.
The permit must be regularly renewed. If you are under 18 and trying to get a license, you need to have your permit for at least 6 months. To secure an Arizona motorcycle license, an applicant must pass a motorcycle operator written exam, complete a DMV-approved motorcycle driver education program, and pass a motorcycle skills test.
Contact the Prescott Motorcycle Accident Attorneys of Lerner and Rowe
At Lerner and Rowe, we are proud to represent Prescott motorcyclists who have been unfairly saddled with the financial, emotional, and physical consequences of a driver breaching their duty of care. Our team has repeatedly demonstrated our ability to offer clients the resources, support, and legal advice they need to maximize their compensation, making us one of Arizona’s most highly regarded personal injury law firms.
You don’t need to shoulder the burden of pursuing an Arizona motorcycle accident lawsuit on your own while you recover from your injuries, make sacrifices in your budget, and adjust to the limitations of your injury. Let the highly sought-after personal injury lawyers of Lerner and Rowe be your voice in negotiations to maximize your likelihood of securing a fair settlement for your damages. This process begins with attending a free consultation with our team.
There’s no time to waste if a Prescott motorcycle accident has left you injured and responsible for medical bills, lost wages, and repair costs. Contact the Prescott personal injury attorneys of Lerner and Rowe today to discuss the types of damages available to you, receive an evaluation of what your claim may be worth, and learn more about the personal injury claims process. You can reach out to us at 602-977-1900 to schedule a free consultation or complete a FREE online form today.