Texas Motorcycle Riders Are at Risk While Riding
If you ride, you know the feeling all too well. You’re cruising down the highway, the wind in your face and the feeling of the open road. You’re holding your lane and suddenly a massive SUV drifts over like you simply don’t exist. And truth be told, for a lot of modern vehicles, you practically don’t.
In the late 1990’s America decided that SUVs and trucks needed to be bigger. In the last decade, or so, the behemoths got even more gargantuan. Modern trucks and SUVs have become rolling blind spots, and distracted drivers – combined with giant pillars, oversized mirrors, touchscreen displays, and just pure laziness – have paved the way to motorcycle riders paying the price.
From our offices in Richardson, Texas (where we serve the greater Dallas-Fort Worth area), the Car Crash Captain is looking into just how bad it has gotten for riders and the side-swipe-lane-change wrecks they are seeing.
Modern Vehicles are Bigger and Harder to See Out Of
It’s not your imagination, nor is it just paranoia. One of the byproducts of massive SUVs and trucks is severely reduced visibility. A study done by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that forward visibility has declined as much as 58% in some of the most popular SUVs on the roads today.
Combine that with the fact that SUVs and trucks are more popular than ever. Ford, for instance, no longer even makes cars (aside from the iconic Ford Mustang), opting to pour all of their resources into SUVs and trucks. Modern safety designs in these vehicles (such as A-pillars, mirrors, and taller hoods) have all led to reduced visibility. Combatting this visibility issue, most vehicles are now using sensors and cameras to alert the driver to a potential danger.
Less visibility, and more reliance on tech that could fail, means motorcycles get lost in the blind spots and are the victims of hasty lane changes. Drivers used to SMOG (Signal, Mirror, Over-the-shoulder, Go!) before changing lanes. Now they trust a little blinking light as they pilot a six-thousand-pound living room down the highway.
Lane Changes Have Become More Dangerous for Texas Riders
Motorcycles are already harder to detect because of their size and speed perception. Now it’s getting even worse and a blind spot crash happens fast and violently because
- Higher speeds on the interstate
- Aggressive driving
- Oversized vehicles
- Distracted driving
- Over-reliance on fallible technology
It’s not just bad drivers. It’s a roadway environment that has become increasingly hostile to vulnerable riders. When the driver of the SUV is about to miss their exit and hastily changes lanes, smashing into a motorcycle rider, they end up with a dented quarter panel. The rider ends up having their skin torn off as they slide across the asphalt wondering if they’ll ever be able to walk normally again.
Insurance Companies Will Blame the Rider
And then, enter the insurance companies. As we know there’s already a bias against motorcycle riders who automatically are blamed without regards to what actually happened.
When you’re on two wheels, you’re stereotyped as reckless. Many insurance companies automatically assume you were speeding, or lane splitting, or overall, just being too aggressive while riding. If they can’t pin any of those on you, it’s claimed that you, “failed to avoid the wreck.”
Meanwhile, you’re dealing with catastrophic injuries, surgery after surgery, missed work, and permanent trauma.
Riders are expected to survive a road filled with invisible blind spots, distracted drivers, and oversized vehicles. Meanwhile the insurance companies are already preparing to cast blame on them before the ambulance has even left the scene.
Herbert Law Group Helps Texas Motorcycle Accident Victims
If you are the victim of a motorcycle wreck, the last thing you want to do is argue with an insurance company that’s bent on proving you were reckless. All that stress is slowing your healing, and causing more trauma on top of that which you’ve already experienced.
Let Herbert Law Group take that stress away. We have the experience to put the insurance companies in their place, and to fight for maximum compensation for you.
Herbert Law Group helps motorcycle accident victims all around the area, from Arlington to Allen; Grapevine to Pleasant Grove, because wrecks don’t just happen downtown. To help you, we need a quick phone call to figure out what happened and how we can fight for you. Call our offices at 214-414-3808, or fill out the contact form on our site, and we’ll be in touch for your free initial consultation.