Determining What Happened in a Motorcycle Accident

Investigating motorcycle accidents today provides the investigator with a number of tools that make it possible to determine if a car or truck driver was telling the truth.
Most motorcycle accidents happen because car and truck drivers don’t see bikers on the road. As a result, it’s not uncommon for motorists to claim that a biker “suddenly appeared out of no where.” Consequently, car drivers and their insurers may try to blame a motorcyclist for an accident that was actually caused by negligence on the part of the car or truck driver. Since personal injury claims can be reduced by the percentage of fault assigned to a motorcyclist, insurers are only too eager to dispatch investigators to a crash site to gather evidence and eyewitness testimony they hope will shift fault away from their policyholder. However, investigating a motorcycle accident link to can often reveal a great deal about negligence on the part of a car driver – despite how investigators for the insurance company try to twist the facts.

Using Modern Accident Investigative Techniques and Technology

Investigating motorcycle accidents today provides the investigator with a number of tools that make it possible to determine if a car or truck driver was telling the truth. The use of GPS technology allows the trail of debris to be mapped to specific coordinate points, allowing investigators to determine the direction and flow of an accident. Measuring skid marks indicates how fast a motorist was traveling and in what direction. If a car or truck has a GPS or black box data recorder system on board, information pertaining to the movement of the steering wheel, braking, and the speed at which a vehicle was traveling can also be learned. Coupled with information from the GPS mapping of an accident scene, motorcycle accidents can be recreated with a great deal of accuracy.

What Damage to a Car Tells Us about a Motorcycle Accident

By examining the damage to a car involved in a motorcycle accident, investigators can often determine if the driver was at fault. For example, damage to the front end of a car typically raises questions as to why the car driver failed to see the motorcyclist. Damage to the side rear portions of a car may indicate a driver changed lanes without seeing a biker or passed in front of a motorcyclist at an intersection without properly checking for traffic. Considered in light of eyewitness testimony, damage to a motorcycle, and evidence from the crash scene, it’s often possible to expose negligence on the part of car and truck drivers who try to shift blame onto the injured biker.