Miami is an excellent place for owning and riding a motorcycle. Not only are motorcycles easier to maneuver on city streets, but with the weather in Miami, you can ride them nearly year-round. However, the more you ride your motorcycle, the higher your risk of being injured in a serious motorcycle accident. Without the outer shell and safety features that a car offers, your body is more exposed to injuries. If you or a loved one was the victim of a motorcycle accident, call our law offices today for a free consultation on your injury case.
Types of Motorcycle Accident Injuries
After a motorcycle accident, it is important to seek medical care. You should also consider talking to an attorney about your options for recovery. Motorcycle insurance and the other driver’s car insurance may help, but a court case may be the best way to recover full compensation. Some types of injuries are more severe than others, but most injuries still deserve some level of compensation. In no particular order, these are some of the most common injuries you may face during a motorcycle accident:
Cuts, Scrapes, and Bruises
Motorcycle leathers and padding may seem too hot for the weather in South Florida, but they can literally save your skin. When your body is moving at high speed, any fall or deep turn can mean your bare skin comes in contact with the road. “Road rash” does not sound severe, but at high speeds, you can lose large swathes of skin, muscle, and other soft tissue where your body meets the road. Motorcycle leathers are thick enough to protect your body from scrapes and scratches. Especially for your hands and knuckles, often used to brace yourself during a crash, protective equipment is important.
You can also receive scrapes and cuts from broken glass, debris, or pieces of broken vehicles. The force of hitting the ground can also cause mild bruising, or far more severe internal bleeding. Motorcycle pads and armor are designed to help prevent this.
Broken Bones
Traveling at high speeds can be fun – until another car, a stationary object, or the road itself stops you. Being thrown from a motorcycle or crashing directly into another object can put extreme force on the body. Especially in your arms and legs, which are more exposed, you could receive serious broken bone injuries. You could also break your collar bone, ribs, hip, back, neck, skull, or any other bones during a crash.
Broken bones come in various levels of severity. A “break” and a “fracture” are, medically, the same thing – but people often use the term “fracture” for less serious breaks. Breaks can also be more severe if the bones need to be put back in place, splinter into more than two pieces, or break through the skin.
Amputation Injuries
On a motorcycle, your arms and legs are very exposed. If you are struck by another vehicle from the side or you fall into a slide on your bike, your limbs could be pinned between your motorcycle and another object. In some cases, the force of the crash is strong enough to sever the limb entirely. In other cases, the injuries may be so severe that your limb needs to be amputated as part of your medical treatment.
This kind of life-altering injury may entitle you to significant compensation. The cost of medical care, rehabilitation, and the pain and suffering you face are all very high with these injuries.
Traumatic Brain Injury
Motorcycle helmets are not required for riders over the age of 21 who carry motorcycle insurance, but wearing a helmet is always a good idea. The skull is strong, but it cannot protect the brain against high-speed crashes or impacts when you are thrown from your motorcycle. Concussions are a common result from strong blows to the head, and are a mild form of traumatic brain injury (TBI). These are usually non-fatal, but repeated concussions can cause long-term damage or CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy).
More severe traumatic brain injury can cause death or permanent, life-altering effects. Symptoms of TBI include changes in mood or personality, memory problems, confusion, difficulty thinking, mood swings, anxiety, nausea, loss of motor function, loss of senses, and other serious effects.
Spinal Cord Injury and Paralysis
The spinal cord runs from your brain, down through your spine, and branches out into the nerves that serve the rest of your body. If this bundle of nerves is damaged or the bones of your spine press on it too hard, it can cause numbness, loss of motor function, and pain in the parts of your body below the point of injury. In cases of severe spinal cord injury, or when the nerves are severed, you could face total paralysis below the point of injury.
Miami Motorcycle Injury Lawyer
If you or a loved one was severely injured in a motorcycle accident, take your case to a Miami personal injury lawyer. Prosper Shaked Accident Injury Attorneys PA have experience handling traumatic injury cases on behalf of accident victims, and may be able to help your family with their case. For a free consultation, contact our law offices today at (305) 694-2676.