Impact of Not Wearing a Motorcycle Helmet on Your Personal Injury Claim
Massachusetts is among the minority of states that requires all motorcycle riders and passengers to wear state-approved motorcycle helmets whenever they ride under M.G.L. 90 § 7. If you fail to wear a helmet and are involved in a motorcycle crash, you can anticipate receiving a ticket and having your insurance rates increase. In your personal injury claim, the state’s comparative negligence rules will also come into play.
Liability
Failing to wear a helmet will not change who was liable for causing your crash. If the other motorist was clearly responsible for causing your accident, your decision to ride without a helmet will not change that determination. This means that even if you were not wearing a helmet at the time of your crash, it should not interfere with your ability to pursue a claim against the at-fault motorist. However, failing to wear a helmet could impact the total compensation you might be able to recover.
Comparative Negligence and Failure to Wear a Helmet
Some of the most serious types of injuries you might suffer in a motorcycle crash include neck and head injuries. These types of injuries might leave you facing permanent disabilities and affect your ability to earn an income in the future. If you sustained a traumatic brain injury or an injury to your cervical spine in a motorcycle collision, the other party will likely argue that you are partially at fault for your injuries because of your failure to wear a motorcycle helmet.
Since you are required to wear a helmet anytime you ride a motorcycle in Massachusetts, you might be considered to have contributed to your injuries by your failure to comply with the helmet law. However, if your injuries were to other areas of your body, the insurance company should not be allowed to use your lack of a helmet to claim you were partially to blame for your injuries. For example, if you suffered severe injuries to your legs and abdominal organs in your wreck, the fact that you were helmetless should not matter. Your attorney can help you understand the potential impact of failing to wear a helmet on the value of your claim and fight to keep the insurance company from placing too much blame on you for your injuries.
Defending Against Helmet Use Arguments
If the insurance company successfully argues that you contributed to your injuries by failing to wear a helmet, the total amount of recoverable compensation will be reduced. This makes it important for you to anticipate helmet use arguments and counter them. You will need to present substantial evidence to fight these types of allegations about your injuries’ severity.
To combat these types of arguments, your attorney will likely work with a medical expert who can provide testimony about your injuries and present evidence from your medical records to show that they were not caused by your lack of a helmet. If the medical expert can testify that your injuries’ severity was unaffected by your lack of a helmet, you will have a better chance of recovering full compensation for your losses.
Talk to Ellis & Associates
If you were injured in an accident caused by someone else while you were riding on a motorcycle, you should speak to the attorneys at Ellis & Associates. Regardless of whether you were wearing a helmet, we can provide you with an honest assessment of your claim’s viability. Call us today for a free consultation at 800-MR-ELLIS.