Maryland Motorcycle Accident Lawyer Blog
As Maryland personal injury attorneys and motorists ourselves I and my colleagues see near misses between cars, trucks and motorcycles every month on the roads in and around Rockville, Cumberland, Annapolis and Washington, D.C. These instances are hard to forget because they are real-life reminders of the sometimes random and haphazard way in which car and trucking accidents can occur.
Aside from those individuals injured in motorcycle accident, bicycle riders are one of the more at-risk groups when it comes to traveling in densely populated urban and suburban areas. Efforts are ongoing to make the rural roadways and city streets, such as those in Baltimore, safer for two-wheeled and pedestrian traffic. Sadly, accident involving cyclists and persons on foot continue to occur with sometimes fatal consequences.
When it comes to motorcycle accidents, fatalities can be quite common for bikers hit by commercial delivery vehicles and even smaller passenger cars. Even with proper safety equipment — operating headlight, taillight, good footwear, heavy leather jacket and pants, as well as a correctly-fitted helmet — a cycle rider can receive extensive and sometimes life-threatening injuries. A helmet can help to reduce the extent of head injuries, but traumatic brain injury is one of common conditions that emergency room doctors see after a car-bike crash.
The so-called “donor cycle” moniker given to motorcycles by some in the healthcare field is not totally undeserved. In fact, it is likely due to the preponderance of closed-head injuries that the name arose, since it is often brain or spinal cord damage that kills or renders a rider in a vegetative state, leaving the rest of the individual’s body more or less in tact. Needless to say, motorcycle riders of any age must always remain alert and aware to the dangers all around them.
Not long ago, a 40-year-old man received life-threatening injuries in a Forest Hill multi-vehicle traffic accident. Based on police reports, the collision happened on a Saturday just before 2pm along a stretch of Rock Spring Rd. Police stated that the biker was traveling northbound when a car in the southbound lane turned left directly in front of the biker at the intersection of Myer Dr. It appears the incident happen so quickly that the rider had no time to stop or even steer around the Honda Accord that caused the wreck.
According to news reports, the motorcyclist was thrown from his bike after impacting the rear section of the passenger car. The victim landed in the southbound lane and was then run over by a pickup truck that was approaching the accident scene. Maryland State Police said the back of the Accord was damaged to the extent that the rear bumper was hanging off the car and had to be torn off by hand before the car could again be driven.
Based on news reports, the cycle rider was transporter by medevac chopper to Shock Trauma with what authorities described as life-threatening injuries. At the time of the report, no mention was made as to any charges police may have been contemplating against the driver of the Honda or the operator of the Mazda pickup truck.
Biker Hit by Truck, Has ‘Life-Threatening Injuries’ , Patch.com, July 9, 2011