Why Hot Weather Increases Risk for Motorcyclists

There are a handful of die-hards who will ride no matter what the weather is throwing at them.  Most who enjoy the open road on two wheels, however, wait for the nicer weather.  Now, as summer is heating up, that wind in your face feels even better.  The summer heat, however, isn’t always the safest for motorcycle riders.  The Car Crash Captain takes a look at how other drivers behave badly in the heat of the summer.

Rising Temperatures Lead to Fatigue

The sun takes a lot out of you.  It might be more accurate to say the summer heat takes a lot out of you.  As your body works harder to cool down, it’s pumping blood to your extremities and into your skin (where the heat can dissipate away).  This means less blood for your muscles, organs, and brain.  For anyone on the road, summer heat induced fatigue can lead to slower reaction times.  Brush up on some of the heat related injuries you, as a rider, could suffer.

Distractions Rise with the Mercury

It seems that clear skies and clear roads should have fewer distractions.  However, that summer heat is bringing them back to you.  Drivers reaching for their iced lattes, fiddling with the AC controls to pump that cool air into the vehicle, and messing with the sun shades can mean they’re not watching out for other motorists – including those on two wheels.

Tourism Brings Traffic

Summer means travel.  And that means our roadways swell up with those who aren’t from around here.  It’s great for the economy, bringing in money from around the country and the world.  But it’s not great for navigating the roads.  Those unfamiliar with driving in the area can make poor decisions.

You can Literally Be Harder to See

When the sun is beating down on roads, we see those little shimmering mirages.  You’ve certainly seen them; they can often look like water on the roadways.  Regardless of how you perceive them, what happens is they distort the driver’s view.  As a motorcycle rider you’re already hard to see.  When you’re distorted, you’re even harder to see.

Herbert Law Group Helps Motorcycle Accident Victims

All this means that when you’re riding your motorcycle in the summer heat, take the regular precautions to ensure you aren’t going to overheat.  Then, you have to be a little bit more diligent to keep an eye out for that inattentive motorist that might otherwise ruin your sunny ride.

If you have been injured in a wreck while you’re riding, let us do the fighting for you.

Herbert Law Group knows how to push back against the insurance companies when they’re being unreasonable, we know what your case is actually worth, and we’ll work hard to ensure you receive a settlement that truly provides justice.

Call our offices at 214-414-3808, or fill out the contact form on our site, and we’ll be in touch with you.  It all starts with a free call to figure out what happened, and how we can help you heal.

Why is Texas Deadlier than Other States?

Hopping on your motorcycle and feeling the wind in your air… that’s why people ride.  It’s invigorating, freeing, and many bikes get much better gas mileage than their four wheel counterparts.

But that excitement doesn’t come without its risks.  We don’t have to tell you that riding a motorcycle is more dangerous than driving a car.  Besides the obvious (the lack of protection from the car body) what leads to the higher number of fatal motorcycle accidents in Texas?

Contributing Factors to Fatal Motorcycle Accidents

According to the 2017 data from the NHTSA Texas had a total of 490 fatal motorcycle accidents that year.  That’s around 9.4% of the total deaths for the entire US (which, if you compare population for Texas vs. the USA, Texas has about 8.8% of the population).

So, what contributed to those fatal accidents?  There are a few categories we should look at.

Speed – They say that speed kills.  When you’re in the open air, it happens more often.  Among fatal car crashes, 18% were caused by excessive speed (nationwide).  But when you look at fatal motorcycle accidents, speed was a factor in 32% of those wrecks.

Alcohol – Alcohol use while driving has gone down in recent years, but it’s still a significant factor.  35% of fatal motorcycle accidents were discovered to have at least some alcohol in their system (with 28% of that 35% being over the legal limit).

Helmet Usage – If you’re over the age of 21, you aren’t required to wear a helmet when riding in Texas (with proper certification).  But, it seems that most people do.  Roughly half of the fatal motorcycle accidents occurred when the rider was wearing a helmet.  Compare that to states where no helmet laws are in place, and the un-helmeted fatalities are closer to 70% of the total.

Population – Higher population states naturally have a higher number of fatal motorcycle accidents.  But that’s not always a factor.  If you look at Florida (population 21.5 million), they had the majority of the fatal motorcycle accidents despite a lower population than many other states.

Texas has a large population.  So, the number of fatal wrecks is going to be higher.  But if everyone that rides practiced safer riding (and wear a helmet), and all other vehicles do their diligence to watch out for those on bikes, that number can continue to go down.

Herbert & Eberstein Help with your Texas Motorcycle Accidents

Until we live in a perfect world, there will always be accidents.  Some of them will result in injury, and some will be fatal.  Compound the matter with insurance companies that want to pay you a tiny settlement that doesn’t compensate you, and these things are tough to recover from.

That’s where Zach Herbert and Brian Eberstein come into play.  With plenty of experience and deep knowledge of Texas motorcycle law, you can focus on healing or grieving, and we will handle the insurance companies.

Fill out the contact form, or give us a call at 214-414-3808, and let’s have a conversation about what happened to see if we’re able to help with your case.