A motorcyclist riding along a quiet country road at sunset

Motorcycle accidents

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Riders

A driver turns left across your lane and says they never saw you. Then the adjuster asks how fast you were going. We have heard that story many times, and we know how to answer it.

Tell us what happened What to do this week

What usually happens

The most common crash we see is simple. A car turns left at an intersection or into a driveway, right across an oncoming rider. The driver says the bike came out of nowhere.

A rider has no metal shell. A bump a car driver would walk away from can mean road rash, a broken wrist or a head injury. Some injuries, like a concussion, take days to show.

Then the claim starts, and so does the bias. Adjusters, and sometimes juries, assume a rider was speeding or weaving. We start by proving what actually happened.

What the insurer says, and what we do

“The motorcycle came out of nowhere.”

We map sight lines at the intersection, pull nearby camera video and check the car's own data to show the rider was there to be seen.
“The rider must have been speeding.”

Skid marks, crush damage and the bike's resting point tell a speed story. We hire a crash reconstruction expert when the numbers matter.
“No helmet, so the injuries are on him.”

In Ohio most adult riders are not required to wear a helmet. Not wearing one does not cancel your claim, and it has nothing to do with who caused the crash.

What your bike and gear are really worth

Insurers often price a motorcycle with tools built for cars. That misses most of what you paid for.

Custom parts and upgrades

Exhaust, seats, bags, lights and tuning. We list each one with receipts or shop records.
Riding gear

Helmet, jacket, gloves, boots and armor are property damage too. A helmet that took a hit should be replaced, even if it looks fine.
Rare or older bikes

We use rider-market sales, not a general used-car guide, to value bikes that are hard to replace.
Your season

If the crash took your riding season, we count that as part of the harm, not as a hobby that does not matter.

Checklist

What to do this week

Get checked by a doctor, even if you rode home. Head and wrist injuries often show up late.
Do not repair or sell the bike. Store it as it is, and take photos from every side.
Keep your helmet and gear in a bag. Do not wash them.
Write down where you were in the lane, your speed and what the driver said.
Do not give a recorded statement to the driver's insurer before you talk to a lawyer.

Who may pay

The driver's liability insurance The first place we look when another driver caused the crash.
Your own underinsured motorist coverage If the driver's limits are too low for your injuries, your own policy may add more.
Medical payments coverage If you carry it, it can pay early medical bills no matter who was at fault.

Questions we hear about motorcycle crashes

I was lane filtering when it happened. Do I still have a case?

Possibly. Ohio does not have a law that allows lane splitting, so the insurer will raise it. But fault is shared in Ohio. If the driver was more at fault than you, you may still recover, reduced by your share.

The insurer offered to total my bike fast. Should I take it?

Not before someone checks the number. Fast offers often leave out upgrades and gear. Once you accept, it is hard to reopen.

An example outcome

Example outcome Settled before a lawsuit

Motorcycle accidents

Left turn across a rider's lane

A driver turned left into a gas station across an oncoming rider and said the bike was speeding. The rider broke his wrist and collarbone.

What happened: Video from the gas station showed the rider at a normal speed. The driver's insurer paid its policy limit, and the rider's own underinsured coverage added more.

What we took from it Business video near an intersection is often the whole case. It has to be requested in days, not weeks.

These are invented examples for a sample website. They show the kinds of results a road injury firm might describe. Every case is different, and past results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome in any other case. See all example outcomes.