Motorcycle Safety Tips from a Motorcycle Accident Attorney

Attorney Claude Wyle | 888-981-0826 | Free Consult

"I put on all the safety gear every single time I ride. I don’t think there’s really room in life to not be as safe as possible when you’re riding a motorcycle."

Quality protective gear, visibility, and audibility are essential to keeping yourself safe on the road when you drive a motorcycle. Understanding effective safety procedures for you and your motorcycle can make or break your case if you are injured in a crash.

Claude Wyle is an injury attorney and partner at Choulos Choulos & Wyle based in San Francisco, CA. He’s also an avid motorcycle rider who represents injured riders. He’s represented many riders injured in motorcycle crashes. In this video, he offers several motorcycle safety tips so riders can stay safe on the road.

To learn more, contact the attorney directly by calling 888-981-0826 or by submitting a contact form on this page. There is no charge for the consultation, and you never owe any out-of-pocket attorney fees.

Key Takeaways From Claude Wyle:

An adequate selection of protective gear includes your helmet, upper body padding, lower body padding, gloves, and boots. Boots are extremely important and should be made in a style that protects your entire foot and ankle. Many serious injuries which occur to a rider’s feet or ankles can easily be prevented by sturdier footwear.

Your helmet is your most vital piece of safety gear.

If money is tight it’s a good idea to reserve a larger chunk of your budget for a high-quality helmet. There is no room for error or poor design when you find yourself in an accident that could injure your head or neck. A full-face helmet with a good visor is the best choice. It should be noted that Wyle’s perspective on safety gear comes from a combination of personal experience as a motorcyclist himself and from the many cases he has worked on, witnessing a vast array of unfortunately preventable injuries.

It’s also important to make sure the actual motorcycle is lending itself to your safety, rather than taking away from it. Two important ways your bike can do this is by being as visible as possible, and as audible as possible.

Driving a loud motorcycle can alert other drivers to your presence when you may be stuck in their blind spot.

Wyle uses the phrase “loud pipes save lives” to express the importance of making other drivers aware of your presence on the road by using the noise produced by your engine and exhaust. Hybrid and electric bikes ride much quieter, so take extra care when riding and assume that other drivers cannot see you.

Wear a brightly colored helmet, drive with your headlight on, and make sure your helmet is DOT approved.

Wearing a brightly colored helmet and making sure your headlight is always on and working properly are effective ways to make yourself visible. Under California law, motorcyclists must wear a helmet, and that helmet must be DOT approved or Snell rated. After the passing of the helmet law in California, head injuries decreased dramatically.

Avoid ‘Sons of Anarchy’-style novelty helmets.

Wyle advises you to purchase the best helmet you can afford, because there is a huge difference in the safety effectiveness between a DOT approved helmet and novelty helmets, which provide no real protection to a rider’s head or neck. Choosing to use an inadequate helmet may turn a relatively minor accident into a wreck resulting in brain injury or death.

A jury might judge you for a lack of safety gear.

If you are not wearing adequate safety gear when your accident occurs, jurors may have difficulty deciding whether you should be culpable for your own injuries or not. Some jurors feel that if the injury could have been prevented using safety gear, the motorcyclist should not be compensated.

It’s important to hire a lawyer who is well-versed in motorcycle accidents.

Firms that do not specialize in motorcycle accidents may turn down your case because they don’t understand the different factors that go into a motorcycle crash or injury. It's also a good idea to contact a lawyer as soon as possible after your accident. The sooner you contact a lawyer the sooner they can begin collecting evidence on your
behalf while you undergo medical treatment and recovery.

To learn more, contact Claude Wyle directly by calling 888-981-0826 or by submitting a contact form on this page. There is no charge for the consultation, and you never owe any out-of-pocket attorney fees.

Disclaimer: This video is for informational purposes only. In some states, this video may be deemed Attorney Advertising. The choice of lawyer is an important decision that should not be based solely on advertisements.