Most of the time the following rider is responsible for avoiding a collision with the lead vehicle. But what if the lead driver does something reckless to contribute to the accident?
An example of one comes from an accident in South Seattle last week. A 26-year-old motorcyclist was critically injured when his motorcycle was hit by a possibly impaired man in an SUV who was making a U-turn.
Police said that the driver of the BMW SUV, an 80-year-old man, was heading eastbound when he suddenly made a U-turn to head west. The motorcyclist was also driving eastbound, and collided with the SUV as it made the turn.
This is a good example of a situation where the “lead” vehicle caused the accident. Since the driver decided to make a sudden U-turn, the following rider didn’t realize—or realized too late—that the lead vehicle was slowing down.
This isn’t an uncommon an occurrence as you might think. In fact, half of all accidents involving motorcycles are caused by drivers turning left in front of the motorcyclist. Drivers either don’t see or don’t perceive the motorcycle.
If you’ve been hurt in an accident that’s someone else’s fault there are almost always ways to recover.