At Denena & Points, our Texas motorcycle accident law firm has a long history of representing injured bikers in their claims for injury compensation after an accident. We also devote much of our professional lives to helping the surviving family members of motorcyclists who’ve suffered fatal wrecks. But we don’t write about motorcycle accidents for our website as often as you night expect.
Why? Because it remains extremely rare to find a motorcycle accident that the media and authorities haven’t blamed on the motorcyclist himself. We understand why this happens. Most people have an inherent bias against bikers. They perceive motorcyclists as reckless, dangerous individuals who drive too fast and take too many chances out on our Texas roads. Our Texas motorcycle accident law firm spends a great portion of our effort fighting this anti-biker bias in court and in settlement negotiations.
As an example of a recent news article on a motorcycle wreck, our Texas motorcycle accident law firm will mention one that occurred Friday night in Brownwood. The motorcycle accident occurred in front of the town’s central fire station. The victim of the tragic Brownwood motorcycle wreck, 24-year-old Christopher Michael Jones, was a percussionist with the Howard Payne University band. He untimely lost his life trying to avoid colliding with a truck at an intersection.
The attempt to brake and evade the collision caused him to lose control of his bike, get ejected from the motorcycle, and slide into a light pole. He received fatal injuries from the impact. According to news account, witnesses of the Brownwood motorcycle wreck simply say that Mr. Jones was going “too fast.”
This example serves to show how witnesses will tend to blame the victim for causing his own motorcycle wreck. In this case, they blame his speed. But the real causes behind the loss of control may well lie elsewhere.
Many motorcycle-braking systems have a habit of suddenly locking up under the pressure of sudden, strong braking events. Motorcycles can’t utilize the type of sophisticated Electronic Stability Control systems offered in late model cars and trucks.
Two-wheeled vehicles are inherently less stable than four- or even three-wheeled vehicles, as you may recall from childhood attempts to transition from a tricycle to a two-wheeled bike. A little bit of gravel on the road, a slick spot, or slight unevenness in the road, which a car or truck wouldn’t even notice, could cause catastrophic consequences for a motorcyclist.
And bikers don’t receive impact protection in a wreck from airbags, enveloping bucket seats, three-point seatbelt restraint systems, or walls and roof of a vehicle. The Texas motorcycle accident law firm of Denena & Points asks that folks not be quick to blame the motorcyclist for his wreck.
At our Texas motorcycle accident law firm, we spend a great deal of time thoroughly investigating motorcycle wrecks on behalf of our clients. The true causes of these wrecks, like brakes that lock up, or gravel in the road, aren’t obvious and don’t generally get reported in the media or even by authorities on the scene of the accident. But folks shouldn’t allow a first impulse towards anti-biker bias to blind them to the possibility of examining the motorcyclist’s wreck for its true causes.