Have you had a serious injury? Are you experiencing pain and suffering? Note any headaches that might be associated with a more traumatic brain injury. Allow me to tell you my story about a motorcycle accident I had on my way to work.

I was working at Safeway in the grocery department, with lots of lifting stacking, stocking, etc. I actually met a friend in the morning. It was a nice summer’s day so I reached out to a buddy from the motorcycle community and we decided to ride our motorcycles to the park. I was working a later shift so this seemed like a nice way to spend the morning. The bike I was riding was a 1998 Kawasaki ZX-7, Burgandy in colour.

My commute to work was about 40 minutes so I left the park pretty early and began my leisurely ride to work. I believe I was the only vehicle driving down a normally busy road. I saw a car ahead in the left lane oncoming and as I got close the car turned left in front of me! The driver of the car seemed to stop right in the middle of the road. The last thing I recall is looking right in the passenger’s window at the person’s confused face looking at me. Then splat! I’m a bug on a window.

Luckily I had a new Shoei helmet that took the hit. I was knocked out but still kneeling against the side of the car. Witnesses later told me that it looked like my neck and head had broken in the accident.

When I regained consciousness, I was still at the accident scene, leaning up against the vehicle of the negligent driver. There was total silence. I suspect most folks had already determined this was one of those fatal accidents that they see on the news. I lifted my head and looked behind me. At that point, the negligent party started to scream, “I’m so sorry”. Then I could see people start moving towards me.

I was up, but I was having a hard time getting my gloves or helmet off. A man reached out to try to help me get my gloves off. I pulled back. He said, “it’s ok I’m a nurse”. He took a glove off and we could see what I believed was a bone pushing up against the skin. At that point, the ambulance showed up. Funny enough, one of the ambulance folks was a buddy of mine. He told me motorcycle accidents are always serious accidents so an ambulance is always dispatched.

The next thing I remember was being in the hospital.

Victim: “a person harmed, injured, or killed as a result of a crime, accident, or other event or action.” (Source:Lexico)

I was now a motorcycle accident victim.

In fact, I was now an injured victim. As a motorcycle rider, people always assume you were speeding. At the hospital, I asked the police officer if he thought I was speeding. He said, “if you were speeding you would have gone right over the car”. Now I was wishing I was speeding!

As a result of the accident, both my radius and ulna bones in my left arm were broken where they connected to the wrist. This required surgery and a plate with three screws were attached to the bones to help them heal. Although broken bones would be considered fairly common injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident case, do injured riders sustain pubic bone injuries? In fact, a little lower and I’m not sure what might have happened!

As my head cleared and I was discharged from the hospital I knew this was going to be a long road to recovery. And this is when I began to think about how I would seek compensation.

I had insurance coverage that included Accident Benefits through my insurance company, those benefits provided a small weekly sum to replace my salary and they covered some medical expenses.

Advice from the best motorcycle accident lawyer

Keep a diary. I can’t remember who told me that but it was solid advice. Further, I kept a record of any medication I took and I kept the receipts. Pain and Suffering on a scale of 1-10, sleep pattern interruptions, basically anything related to the accident. I found my diary supported the medical-legal report provided by my doctor to the motorcycle accident lawyer, my insurance company, and the insurer of the negligent party.

My motorcycle accident conclusion

In the end, my motorcycle accident claim took a few years to settle. I had two operations on my arm. I went through two lawyers (first a corporate lawyer then an attorney who had dealt with motorcycle accidents). I suspect I was like many motorcycle accident victims, I could not return to my previous work. The injury so close to the wrist meant that heavy lifting would result in early painful arthritis, not looking forward to it.

My personal injury claim and all remaining damages from the motorcycle accident resulted in a payment of low six figures. My motorcycle accident attorney took her percentage (25-30%). After that, my mom encouraged me to invest that money and not ride motorcycles on the street again. That’s another story.

Feel free to connect with me or connect with a motorcycle accident lawyer from this page.

Your friend,

Ray