Tips for Motorcycle Novices in Avoiding Personal Injury

As a motorcyclist, you face challenges that other drivers do not – particularly when it comes to personal injury. Your driving is effected not only by your own abilities and alertness, but also by drivers who do not understand how to fairly share the road with you.

Here are some important factors to consider to help you avoid personal injury from a motorcycle accident:

Shop Carefully

The excitement of riding a motorcycle can often overshadow logic and safety. As a novice rider, you need to be very careful when out shopping for your first motorcycle. A common factor in many motorcycle accidents is riding a bike you are not able to handle.

As a new rider you should be shopping for a bike with a motor between 250 to 300 cc. For the more experienced, consider if you will be doing more city or highway driving. Highway driving requires more power and therefore you should be looking at a motorcycle with a motor that is 500 to 750 cc.

Another feature to help you stay safer on the road is anti-lock brakes. Stats show that anti-lock brakes are safer and are 37 percent less likely to be involved in a fatal accident. The reason for this is that locked brakes on a motorcycle inevitably lead to a fall whereas anti-lock brakes keep the rider in control of steering to help avoid dangerous skids.

Drive Carefully

Careful driving is only common sense, yet most accidents involving cars and motorcycles are related to driver error. For this reason, motorcyclists must learn defensive driving skills. Formal training to learn to drive defensively will hone your skills and make you more aware of the serious issues you can encounter when you and other drivers don’t follow the rules.

Aggressive driving is tempting while riding as motorcycles can do things cars can’t, such as driving between lanes. This can lead to issues for trucks and cars which are not looking for vehicles in this space.

Another danger for motorcyclists is inclement weather. Although you can’t always foresee a sudden storm, avoiding bad weather when you can will help you avoid a motorcycle accident.

Last but not least, avoid riding off the road to get around traffic. Remember that driving over grass and gravel is a sure-fire way to lose control of your motorcycle, especially for a novice rider.

If you do suffer personal injury as a result of a motorcycle and car accident in the greater Houston area that was caused by someone else’s negligence, attorney Charles J. Argento will help you get a fair and full settlement.

Actions to Take If You Get in a Motorcycle Accident

• Don’t panic. It’s important to stay calm so you can carefully assess the situation. Get immediate medical help if you are injured

• Observe and record. It will likely be extremely important in the future to get an accurate and complete picture of your accident. Take notes on all the details you remember as soon as possible while the incident is still fresh in your head – the time of the accident, location where it occurred, where you were driving to and from, the weather conditions of the day, the road conditions, any abnormalities you experienced with your motorcycle, and a step-by-step account of the accident itself. Make sure you store this account where you will be able to easily locate it later

• Document your injuries. In addition to seeking medical care to treat your injuries, you should also document any injuries you sustained for your own records. This means both writing down any symptoms you experience and taking photographs of any and all visible injuries. Try to take these photographs as soon as possible after the auto accident. Keep a log of all your treatments and medical bills as well

• Photograph the scene. When you are able, return to the location of the accident to take photographs of the area from multiple different angles. Try to time your scene visit around the approximate same time of day and same day of the week as your accident to most accurately capture similar conditions

We speak both English and Spanish at our firm and welcome your call at (713) 225-5050 to arrange your initial consultation.