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How Bike Helmet Law Affects Liability in Bicycle Injury Claims...
Due to strict bike helmet law, not wearing a helmet can severely hinder
your bicycle injury claim.
Bicycle accident statistics show it's more common to suffer a head
injury in a bike
accident than in
any other form of road
accident (as a percentage).
The fact that bike riders are out
in the open, coupled with the actual act of being hit, makes it
incredibly difficult to protect the head from
injury.
This
is where wearing a helmet comes into play. It doesn't matter how much
fault
the driver of the car has, because the cyclist's wearing (or not
wearing)
of a helmet can affect how much they're liable for.
The driver may have been negligent
in causing the accident, but by
not wearing protective headwear the rider disobeyed bike helmet law and
can be
negligent for the severity of their injuries.
There are
different state helmet laws regulating the wearing of protective
headgear.
Some make it mandatory for motorcycles but not bicycles. Some
make it mandatory for riders only under a certain age.
Bike helmet law aside, helmets
have proven again
and again to protect the rider from head injury in
motorcycle
accidents. They make head injuries less likely and often less severe.
With bicycles there are fewer documented cases that demonstrate helmet
effectiveness. So for a cyclist, whether or not they wore one
should
be less of an issue when approaching bike accident injury negotiations.
If you
sustained head injuries while on a bicycle, and you were wearing a
helmet, bring it up. It will demonstrate
you're a safe rider and
that the negligent party did that much more damage.
On any two-wheeled vehicle, when the rider is legally obligated to wear
a helmet
but doesn’t, it becomes relevant to the claim.
If the rider suffered
head injuries, but failed to obey bike helmet law, then the negligent
party may not have to compensate for those injuries at all.
Of
course, no matter what the laws are, the relevant laws won’t come into
question unless there was a head injury. If the only
injuries were
below the neck, then no one can point to the lack of helmet as a form
of negligence.
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