Many Arlington, Texas residents love motorcycles, but sometimes, riding motorbikes can result in catastrophic or fatal injuries. If you got hurt or a loved one died in a motorcycle crash, you need a law firm that treats you like family.
An Arlington motorcycle accident lawyer from our team could be just what you need to help you seek compensation from the careless party who caused the crash that resulted in catastrophic injuries for you or a loved one. At Domingo Garcia, we truly care about our clients. We will work tirelessly to get our clients the compensation they deserve for the harm they have suffered from someone else’s negligence.
Motorcycle Accident Trends and Statistics
According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), a motorcyclist is 29 times more likely to die of accident injuries than someone in a car (per miles traveled). More motorcyclists died in crashes in America in 2020 (5,579) than in any other year since researchers first recorded crash data in 1975.
There was an 11 percent increase in motorcyclist fatalities between 2019 and 2020. There were more than twice as many deaths from crashes among motorcycle riders in 2020 than in 1997.
Three Actions to Take After a Motorcycle Collision in Arlington
Doing these three things after a motorcycle crash in the Arlington, Texas area could help to protect your right to money damages for your debilitating injuries and other losses.
Call the Police
It is essential to summon law enforcement to the scene to document the facts and assess fault. The police will be an uninvolved third party whose evidence will carry great weight. If you do not get a police report, liability for the motorcycle accident will be a matter of one person’s word against another’s.
When someone causes a motorcycle accident due to negligence and sees they have injured someone, they might be tempted to leave the scene before the police arrive. If possible, try to get a picture of or remember the license plate number and vehicle description in case the other driver flees the scene illegally.
Get Medical Treatment
Wounds usually heal better when they receive prompt medical attention and do not have the opportunity to get worse. Also, you might have injuries that you have not noticed yet due to delayed manifestation of symptoms. This can happen with internal bleeding in the brain or abdomen, fractures, or other motorcycle accident injuries.
Your medical records will be vital in establishing a link between the crash and your injuries. Any delay in getting a medical assessment and starting treatment could lead the negligent driver to argue that something else caused your injuries, so you will want to get an evaluation right away.
Consider Hiring an Arlington Motorcycle Accident Attorney
After receiving emergency medical care, you should consider hiring a personal injury attorney so they can start on your case from the beginning, allowing you to focus on recuperating from your injuries.
When you work with an Arlington motorcycle accident lawyer from our team, we can start our investigation of the accident, gather and preserve the evidence, and start building your case right away.
What Can Cause Arlington Motorcycle Accidents?
Any number of things can cause or contribute to motorcycle collisions. Here are some of the factors commonly involved in these crashes:
Speeding
Motorists do not always notice people riding motorcycles because these vehicles are smaller and move differently than standard cars and trucks. When a car is speeding, they are less likely to see a motorcycle in time to avoid a collision.
Drowsy or Distracted Driving
A car or truck driver who is fatigued or not giving the act of driving their full attention is even more likely to fail to notice a motorcyclist.
For example, a person reading text messages on their cell phone while driving might change lanes or execute a turn without checking for someone on a motorcycle. They might give a quick glance, but only to the extent of looking for a full-size vehicle, rather than a motorbike.
Poor Driving Decisions
When a vehicle driver tries to pass another vehicle, changes lanes frequently, or tailgates, accidents can result. If there is a motorcycle in the near vicinity, it might get caught in the crash. There is often very little time to react to other drivers’ errors.
Alcohol or Drugs
A person operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol or drugs is always at risk of causing a collision.
The impaired driver might misjudge the distance between their vehicle and the motorcycle or the amount of buffer space they should allow for the safety of the motorbike. Some people may even intentionally try to force motorcycles off of the road.
How an Arlington Motorcycle Crash Could Affect Your Life
The consequences of a motorcycle accident could remain for weeks, months, or even years after the crash. A person injured in a motorcycle collision might face:
Catastrophic Physical Injuries
Recuperating from severe wounds after a motorcycle accident can take months or longer. The individual might have to undergo a series of surgeries. They might have months of intense treatment at a specialized rehabilitation facility to learn how to walk again and perform other daily functions.
Even after completing all the prescribed treatment and benefitting from everything medical science can do for them, some people have wounds that will never completely heal. They might face a lifetime of paralysis, chronic pain, limited strength and movement, and other impairments.
Property Damage or Loss
Motorcycles are often a total loss after a significant collision. You might have to pay a deductible of hundreds or even thousands of dollars to get your bike repaired or buy a new motorcycle. Depending on your insurance policy, you might not have replacement value coverage. Your insurance proceeds might not come close to putting you back on the road on a similar motorbike.
Intangible Losses
In addition to these obvious losses are the damages a person might experience mentally and emotionally. These are real losses, even though many people may overlook them.
Pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, disfigurement, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can make your life miserable, and you deserve to be compensated for these challenges.
Severe Injuries in Arlington Motorcycle Accidents
When a motor vehicle strikes a motorcycle, the person riding the motorcycle often flies through the air. Before this happens, the person’s body takes the brunt of the contact with the car. Unlike passengers in the car, the motorcycle rider does not have the benefit of a steel frame to protect them.
What goes up must come down, so the motorcycle rider’s body often suffers a second injury when they land on the ground. Some of the devastating injuries motorcycle riders can experience include:
- Concussions or other traumatic brain injuries (TBIs)
- Brain bleeds
- Fractured bones in any part of the body
- Spinal cord injuries, sometimes resulting in paralysis
- Disfigurement
- Amputation
- Burns
The wounds suffered in a motorcycle crash can be life-changing. Sometimes, these injuries are not survivable.
When Your Loved One Dies in an Arlington Motorcycle Collision
Motorcycle accidents can cause fatal wounds. Under Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 71.004, certain close relatives can pursue a wrongful death claim against the person whose negligence took the life of their loved one. They may be able to recover compensation for the medical expenses, funeral, and burial costs of the person who died.
The family can also ask the court to award compensation for the loss of income, loss of services the person provided to the household, and loss of the companionship, advice, and guidance of the decedent.
Recoverable Compensation for Arlington Motorcycle Accidents
The amount of money damages you can pursue for your injuries and other losses after a motorcycle collision in the Arlington area will depend on the unique facts of your situation. This type of personal injury claim has no “average” or flat-rate payouts.
Some of the common categories of money damages people pursue after getting hurt in a motorcycle accident include:
Medical Expenses
You can seek the cost of the healthcare and related services you needed to treat your wounds after a motorcycle accident. The ambulance or life flight, emergency room or trauma center, hospital, and doctors’ bills fall into this category.
Medical procedures, diagnostic tests, laboratory work, imaging studies like x-rays, and surgeries also count as medical treatment. After the initial medical crisis is addressed, you might need ongoing physical therapy and prescription drugs.
Depending on the nature and severity of your wounds, you might also need rehabilitative care at a specialized facility. With catastrophic injuries like spinal cord damage or head trauma, some people need to live in a long-term care facility like a nursing home after a motorcycle crash.
Lost Income
You might not get a paycheck while you are recovering from your injuries. You could be in the hospital or at home, recovering from surgery, for weeks or months. You might need to attend physical therapy appointments throughout the week. You may be permanently disabled and unable to ever return to work again.
Even if you can return to work, you might not be able to make as much money as you did before you got injured. Any difference in your income caused by impairment from your wounds, like a loss of strength or function, chronic pain, or spending the rest of your life in a wheelchair, should be compensated.
Any wages or earning potential you lose because of your motorcycle accident injuries may be recoverable in your personal injury claim.
Property Damage or Loss
Motorcycles are expensive. Your bike could sustain significant damage from a collision. Even if you can repair it, your motorcycle will never have the same trade-in value as it did before the wreck. If your motorcycle gets totaled, your insurance might not cover the full replacement value.
Your Arlington motorcycle accident lawyer can help you seek compensation for repair, replacement, or diminished value of your motorcycle.
Intangible Losses
A person who gets severely injured in a motorcycle accident not only experiences significant physical wounds and financial losses, but they also suffer many intangible losses that deserve to be compensated.
Intangible losses can include the physical discomfort and emotional distress caused by their injuries, the stress of worrying about their job and how well they will heal, and inconvenience to their life, as all their plans for the immediate (and potentially distant) future have been derailed.
A motorcycle accident victim may also develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from the terrifying experience of being in a crash. Lingering problems from their wounds might leave them unable to ride a motorcycle again, causing a loss of enjoyment of life. Gashes, burns, and other injuries can leave a motorcycle rider disfigured.
Wrongful Death
In addition to the types of money damages in a personal injury case, your Arlington motorcycle wreck attorney might be able to pursue additional compensation in a wrongful death case if your close relative did not survive their motorcycle accident wounds.
Who Can You Sue After a Motorcycle Collision in Arlington?
Anyone whose careless actions caused or contributed to a motorcycle accident could find themselves involved in a lawsuit for the injuries and losses of those injured in the collision. Most motor vehicle accident injury claims are based on negligence.
A negligent act that could subject someone to legal responsibility for an Arlington motorcycle accident could include any of the following:
- A car failing to yield the right of way to a motorcycle
- A motorist running a red light or stop sign
- A vehicle driving too fast for the conditions or exceeding the posted speed limit
- A car tailgating a motorcycle
- Debris on the road that posed a hazard for a motorcycle
These are merely a few examples of many factors that could cause or contribute to a motorcycle accident. Liable parties in these instances could include another vehicle driver, a trucking company, or a municipality in charge of maintaining the roads, among others.
Your Arlington motorcycle accident lawyer can help you understand who the liable party or parties are in your case and whom you could potentially sue.
Pitfalls to Avoid After an Arlington Motorcycle Collision
You could make some mistakes after the motorcycle crash that could decrease the financial value of your injury claim. It is important to be aware of these pitfalls, so you can avoid them and protect the value of your case.
Posting on Social Media
We advise our clients to stay completely off social media when they have a pending personal injury or wrongful death claim. Anything you post, whether comments or photographs, could get twisted and used against you. Any statements about the party who caused the crash could also make you look bad in the eyes of the jury.
The defense may even be able to use social media content unrelated to the accident. For example, if you post photos of you having fun at a birthday party, the at-fault party might claim that you are exaggerating your injuries.
Trying to Handle Your Injury Claim by Yourself
You might be brilliant at what you do for a living, but being smart is not all it takes to win a personal injury claim. You need to know hundreds or thousands of laws and procedural rules in-depth. Making just one mistake could cost you everything in your case.
This is why we strongly advise working with an Arlington motorcycle wreck lawyer. They have the knowledge and experience in personal injury cases that you lack.
Accepting a Lowball Settlement Offer
When the claims adjuster from the insurance company deals with someone who does not have an Arlington motorcycle accident lawyer helping them with their claim, the adjuster is likely to make a lowball settlement offer to see what happens. The insurance company has access to information from previous injury claims like yours, so they know the financial value of your case is likely much higher.
Luckily for you, personal injury attorneys have access to the same information as the insurance companies. We can determine whether a settlement offer is fair in your circumstances. You do not have to cross your fingers and hope for the best.
We advise not accepting any settlement offer from the insurance company without first discussing it with your motorcycle accident lawyer serving Arlington.
Settling Your Case Too Early
If you settle your motorcycle accident claim too early, you might not yet have all the necessary information.
For example, if you settle your claim before you complete your medical treatment, you might find out too late that you will not regain all the function of your injured body parts or that you need an additional surgery the settlement you agreed to will not cover.
You can’t go back to the defendant to try to get more money after you settle your claim, so it’s important to ensure your settlement covers all your losses—past, current, and future.
The Statute of Limitations for Motorcycle Accident Injury or Wrongful Death Cases in Texas
Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 16.003 allows only two years to take legal action against the at-fault party for your wounds and other losses from the Arlington motorcycle collision. If you miss the filing deadline, Texas law can forever bar you from getting the justice you deserve from the careless party who harmed you. This statute of limitations applies to both personal injury and wrongful death claims.
You do not want to forget the statute of limitations while negotiating with the claims adjuster. The claims adjuster knows the filing deadline for your case, and they may be perfectly happy to sit back and let it expire before you settle.
If this happens, you will lose your best bargaining chip (the threat of a lawsuit) and will likely have to settle for a smaller amount than you deserve or give up your case completely.
How Domingo Garcia Can Help You After an Arlington Motorcycle Crash
You need to know what to expect from the law firm you hire to handle your personal injury claim after an Arlington motorcycle crash. We cannot speak for other law firms, but at Domingo Garcia, we treat our clients with kindness, compassion, and respect. We are relentless in our pursuit of justice for people who get hurt because of the carelessness of others.
- We’ll investigate the motorcycle accident to determine causation and determine if multiple parties might be liable for your losses.
- We’ll stay in close communication with you so that you never have to wonder or worry about what is happening in your case.
- We’ll listen to your concerns and answer your questions.
- We’ll offer legal guidance so that you know your options and what to expect.
- You will not have to deal directly with the defendant or the insurance company because we’ll handle those things on your behalf. We will take care of your personal injury or wrongful death claim and negotiate for you to try to achieve a fair settlement.
- If we cannot settle with the insurance company, and it is appropriate to do so, we can file a lawsuit with the court for your personal injury or wrongful death claim. We can still conduct negotiations after filing a lawsuit.
- If we find ourselves in litigation over your claim, we will conduct discovery, collect evidence, build your case, prepare for trial, and handle your case in court.
This is only a brief summary of the massive amount of work that goes into handling an injury case after an Arlington motorcycle accident. There will be many additional steps. You do not need to worry about these issues because your lawyer can take care of everything for you.
Our Case Results for Our Clients
A lot is at stake when you have a motorcycle accident injury claim. Your life might never be the same as it was before the crash. You need a law firm that will go to bat for you and help you get the compensation you deserve.
Every motorcycle collision case is different, and the amount people can recover will vary from one case to the next. Your case’s facts will determine the amount of compensation you might be able to recover.
Here are some examples of settlements we have won for our clients, including a motorcycle accident and other motor vehicle collisions:
- Motorcycle accident with commercial vehicle: $3 million settlement
- Large truck accident: $8.75 million settlement
- Commercial motor vehicle accident involving a pedestrian: $2.75 million settlement
You can see other case results on our website.
Why You Can Afford to Have an Arlington Motorcycle Accident Lawyer from Domingo Garcia Handle Your Claim
You do not have to be rich to get a lawyer’s help with your Arlington motorcycle crash claim. We will not make you pay any upfront or hourly legal fees. We will work on your entire case from start to finish without you having to pay us any money until the end. Our legal fees will be a portion of the settlement proceeds or jury verdict you receive.
We have a strict “no win, no fee” policy. That means you do not owe us any legal fees if you do not win your case. It’s really that simple.
Get Started on Your Arlington Motorcycle Crash Claim Today at Domingo Garcia
Getting a free consultation on your motorcycle accident case is easy. Simply contact us at Domingo Garcia to start the process. We are proud to offer bilingual assistance to our clients. And remember, your Arlington motorcycle accident lawyer will not charge you a fee unless you win.
