Passenger Hurt in Motorcycle Crash?

California Motorcycle Accident Attorney

Video Transcript:

Claude Wyle: 

Anything that can happen to anybody on a motorcycle can happen to their passenger and usually more easily.

Molly Hendrickson: 

If you're injured as a passenger on a motorcycle, what should you do? We're speaking with Attorney Claude Wyle about that on today's Ask The Lawyer. Claude, thanks for joining us.

Claude Wyle: 

Thank you, Molly. I'm very happy to be with you.

Molly Hendrickson: 

So first off, if someone is a passenger, riding on the back of a motorcycle, are they covered under any insurance if they're hurt?

Claude Wyle: 

Yes, of course they are. The great thing about motorcycle passenger cases, or as any passenger case, is that the passenger really doesn't have the opportunity to do anything wrong. Now, we have had... I've only had one case in 40 years where the passenger leaned over in a car and grabbed the steering wheel and both went over a cliff, it's one case in all these years, usually the passenger really can't do much to change the outcome of what happens in a crash, so they are the non-fault party.

Molly Hendrickson: 

So how does a passenger who's hurt on somebody's motorcycle go about making a claim on the driver's insurance policy and is a lawsuit always necessary?

Claude Wyle: 

No, a lawsuit is not always necessary. The first thing you would do would be to hire a lawyer, somebody who is familiar with motorcycle crashes particularly would be better, and that lawyer will send a letter of representation to the person who was operating the motorcycle and controlling the motorcycle, and advise them that the claim is being made, and then the motorcycle insurance would call up the lawyer and we would begin to work on the claim. You don't have to file a lawsuit, you can just start a claim. Sometimes you have to file a lawsuit, and I'm sure we'll go into that in a second.

Molly Hendrickson: 

Okay. Well, which brings me to my next question. Usually, if you're on the back of somebody's motorcycle, you know the person, it's a relative, a spouse, maybe a friend, what are the next steps if you don't wanna file a lawsuit against that person because they're somebody you care about?

Claude Wyle: 

Well, it's nice to be able to avoid suing friends, but the operator of the motorcycle has to understand that you're going after their insurance, a claim has to be made. If a lawsuit has to be filed, it has to be filed against the operator, but that doesn't mean they're gonna be digging in their own pocket to compensate their passenger, what that means is that might be necessary. A lawsuit might be necessary to get the insurance company's attention sufficiently so that they pay something reasonable to the passenger. So it's not really fun to sue your friend, it really isn't, but most drivers and most operators of motorcycles understand, hey, you're going after my insurance policy, you're not going after my house.

Molly Hendrickson: 

Alright. What types of injuries have you seen in these types of accidents?

Claude Wyle: 

Well, anything that can happen to the operator of a motorcycle can happen to their passenger, and sometimes more so. You get many fractures of bones when people fall off the bike, we get a lot of traumatic brain injury cases related to motorcycle crashes, sometimes you can get... Some accidents create spinal cord injuries, there's a wide, wide range of injuries. Anything that can happen to anybody on a motorcycle can happen to their passenger and usually more easily.

Molly Hendrickson: 

So let's talk about who's at fault in these types of accidents and can a passenger ever be at fault when riding on the back of somebody's motorcycle or can they be partially at fault for causing an accident?

Claude Wyle: 

I would say usually the passenger is not at fault, but let's say there's just a motorcyclist and a passenger, and the motorcyclist gets distracted, let's go or whatever they're supposed to be holding on to and just falls off the back of the bike. I would say that the passenger has a healthy degree of comparative fault, other than a situation like that, or where I talked about somebody reaching up and grabbing the handle bars or doing something to upset the operator's control of the motorcycle, it's probably always going to be the operator's fault and not the passenger's.

Molly Hendrickson: 

Claude, thanks for taking the time to talk to us today.

Claude Wyle: 

Absolutely. Motorcycle passenger injuries are... It's a sticky situation. Usually, motorcycle crashes are not the fault of the operator of the motorcycle, so what we end up having... What we end up having is a claim against the offending vehicle, may be a car or a truck or a bus that hit the motorcycle and hurt both the operator and their passenger. If the operator is not at fault at all, there's no potential for comparative negligence on the operator of the motorcycle, and there's no potential for a conflict of interest. If there is a potential for the motorcycle operator being partially at fault, it's probably a good idea to have a separate lawyer for the motorcycle operator and for their passenger. In cases like that, we know other lawyers who are good at these kind of cases, and we can refer a client to those other lawyers so that we can avoid a conflict of interest when maybe the passenger should also make a claim against the operator. We try to avoid doing that, but we don't want to cut off any avenue of recovery for any of our clients, so that's not something we would do and just give up a case against the operator, I think that's bad practice.

Molly Hendrickson: 

Claude, thanks for joining us. That's gonna do it for this episode of Ask The Lawyer. My guest has been Claude Wyle. If you wanna ask him about your situation, you can call the number on the screen. Thanks for watching. I'm Molly Hendrickson for Ask The Lawyers.

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