Why choose Mooneerams bike accident lawyers?
- Same day FREE initial motorcycle accident claim assessment.
- No Win No Fee motorcycle accident claims service.
- Mooneerams quality of service gets rated at 5 out of 5* on the info review site and Google.
- Easy access to your dedicated member of the Mooneerams team.
- Regular updates on the progress of your claim.
- Recovery of all your losses, not just personal injury compensation
Call Mooneerams motorbike accident compensation claims solicitors on 029 2048 3615 for a quick informal chat about making a possible motorcycle accident claim. Prefer a call back from us/? No problem – leave your contact details online, and we will call you.
Motorcycle accident facts and figures
Welsh government figures for 2019 revealed that of the 5,789 people injured in road traffic accidents in Wales, 595, or just over 10%, were motorcyclists. The majority of those accidents happened in good weather, and 25% of them took place at a road junction.
UK Government statistics showed for every billion miles travelled, the casualty rate for motorcyclists was just over 6000 casualties, compared to just 238 for car occupants. For every billion miles travelled, the fatality rate for motorcyclists was 116.9 compared to just 1.9 for occupants of cars.
No motorcyclist goes out on their bike thinking they might get injured in a motorbike accident, and nor should they. However, having mindful respect for the potential dangers can only help focus the mind on safe bike riding. It also helps as a reminder to be ever alert to what other road users are doing as bikers.
What are the first steps to take after being involved in a motorcycle accident?
If you have been the victim of a motorcycle accident, it is more than likely you have suffered an injury. Motorcyclists are classed as ‘vulnerable road users in the Highway Code. Although motorcyclists may well ride bikes capable of speeds and acceleration which would make most other road users envious, they still have minimal protection from suffering severe injury if they have an accident.
1. Seek medical assistance for injuries sustained in the motorcycle accident
If you suffer injury in a motorcycle accident, the first thing you should do is to seek medical help. At that point, nothing else should matter. Of course, the matter may have been taken out of your hands. Others present may have called for an ambulance on seeing you were injured.
Even if the injury does not warrant the emergency services transporting you to A&E, you must still ensure you seek medical attention promptly following the accident.
2. Call the emergency services
If you are in a position to do so, call the emergency services yourself. Ideally, you will want your bike and the other vehicle leaving in their immediate post-accident positions. If your injuries prevent you from doing so, ask someone else to make the call. Ideally, you will want the scene of the accident left in its post-accident state. It will help the police when they carry out their formal review into how the accident happened. If it is not safe to leave the vehicles where they are, try and get a photo of the accident scene before they get moved.
3. Exchange insurance details
Take the Third Party’s details – name, phone number, email, and address. Get the registration number and make of the other vehicle noted, too. If they know their insurance company details, take those down. You must give your details to the other driver.
4. Witnesses details
If there are witnesses to the accident, it is essential to get their contact details. A genuinely independent witness can usually be relied on to give an unbiased account of how the accident happened.
5. Speak only to the police about the accident at the scene
Do not talk to the Third Party other than to exchange details and ask if they are alright. Do not be tempted to get involved in an argument about how the accident happened. Instead, relay your account of the accident to the police when they attend the scene. The police will probably arrange for your bike to be removed from the accident scene by an accident recovery firm. If they don’t (and it isn’t capable of being ridden), call your insurers to arrange for recovery (see below).
6. Photos
Take as many photos as you can – of the scene of the accident, of your damaged bike and the Third Party’s vehicle. In the case of an accident caused by a road defect, such as a pothole, it is crucial to get pictures showing the state of the road. Ideally, you will take a photo showing the depth of the defect. You may need to revisit the scene a day or so after the accident. If your injuries prevent you from returning on another day, get someone to attend the location for you and take measurements (if it is safe to do so).
7. Report the accident to your insurers.
It is not the immediate thing you need to do at the scene, but you should do so, as soon as possible, when you get home or at the hospital if you are fit to do so. If not, get someone else to contact your insurers on your behalf.
Call Mooneerams solicitors to start your motorcycle accident claim
When you feel ready and fit enough to do so, call Mooneerams on 029 2048 3615. We have already said your health is the most important thing to attend to after the accident. Depending on how severe your injuries are, you may stay in hospital for some time. You may not be in a position to speak to anyone for a while. When you are ready, call us. If you contact us from the hospital as an inpatient, we will be only too pleased to come and take details of the accident, your injuries, and all your other losses from you whilst you are there.
If you recuperate at home and would prefer us to come you, we will be happy to do so.
You are also free to make an appointment to come and see us. As well as our Cardiff head office, we have meeting facilities in Aberdare, Bridgend, Caerphilly, Cardiff Bay, Merthyr Tydfil, Pontypridd and Swansea.
What are the causes of non-fault motorbike accidents?
Here, we are talking about accident circumstances where the other party to the accident is at fault for the accident, such as:
- The other party/driver fails to see and therefore fails to give way to the motorcyclist. As a result, the other party pulls out in front of or turns across the motorbike’s path, thus causing a collision.
- Other road users open their car/vehicle doors into the path of an oncoming motorcyclist.
- Drivers who change lanes or overtake and collide with motorcyclists in the process because they were not looking out properly.
- Driver being distracted, e.g., by their mobile phone or another digital device
- Potholes. These are significant hazards for motorcyclists. If a car hits a pothole, there may be vehicle damage. If a motorcyclist hits a pothole, there may be severe injury or death to the rider or pillion passenger
- Oil or other spillages left on the road can cause bikers to skid and lose control of their machines, causing serious injury when they come off their machines.
What do you need to prove to make a successful motorcycle accident claim?
1. You need to prove the accident was caused by the carelessness (negligence) of another motorist (or other types of road user, e.g., a cyclist).
2. Alternatively, you will need to prove a defect in the road caused the accident. Potholes are potential death traps for motorcyclists.
It does not have to be a pothole which caused the accident – it may be some other type of defect in the road surface, such as a crumbling road surface. If you are to be successful in a pothole claim, you will need to prove the defect should already have been repaired. You will direct your claim to whoever was responsible for the road’s upkeep – usually the local authority or highway authority. You will also have to prove the responsible authority should have repaired the defect because:
i)They already knew about it but had not repaired it, or
ii) They did not know about the road defect, but it had been there for a long time.
3. Oil or other spillage – if the bike accident resulted from spillage on the road which was not cleaned up and caused you to skid, lose control and crash, you may have a claim against whoever was the cause of the spillage.
First, you will have to find out who caused the spillage. Although motorcycle spillage accident claims can be complex, by handing your claim over to an experienced firm of road traffic accident solicitors, such as Mooneerams, you are giving yourself the best chance of successfully recovering compensation for your injuries and other losses.
What types of motorcycle injury compensation can be claimed for?
Personal injury claims sustained in motorcycle accidents range from relatively minor to serious head injuries, and fatal injuries
The following types of injury are the most common following motorcycle accidents:
- Cuts and bruises
- Scars and Lacerations
- Broken arms
- Broken legs
- Chest injuries
- Serious neck injuries
- Amputation or limb damage
- Brachial plexus injury
- Whiplash
- Head injury
- Brain injury
- Spinal injury
- Fatal injuries
- Other serious injuries
What else can I claim for?
While there is understandably a great deal of focus on the injuries sustained in motorcycle accidents, at Mooneerams we have successfully recovered compensation for many motorcyclists involved in non-fault motorcycle accidents.
We understand recovering compensation for your damaged bike is hugely important to you, as much as or even more so perhaps than recovering personal injury compensation, in some cases. Your machine is your pride, and joy is often likely to be worth a significant amount of money.
At Mooneerams, we recognise the importance of your machine to you and will ensure the claim for your motorcycle damage or its write of value will receive the utmost priority.
Other possible areas of claim include:
- Lost earnings – potentially both past and future loss of earnings
- Rehabilitation costs
- Medical fees
- Cost of replacement transport, whilst your bike is off the road, such as public transport fares or taxi fares.
You are entitled to be put back into the position you would have been in immediately before the accident happened. Therefore, any losses reasonably incurred as a result of the accident, can be recovered from the insurer of the party at fault.
How much will I get for my claim?
We understand you would like to know how much compensation you stand to get if you have suffered injury in a motorcycle accident.
However, there are so many reasons why it would be foolish of us even to try and estimate what level of compensation you might receive. Here is why:
- No two claims are identical.
- The type of injuries suffered in motorcycle accidents ranges from minor bumps and bruises to fatal accident injuries. Therefore, the compensation range is extensive, depending on the nature of the injury you suffer.
- A medical report from a consultant surgeon will be needed to set out the exact nature of your injuries and how long it will take to recover from those injuries. It may be the case you will not recover fully or only in the long term. We will arrange for you to be medically examined by a suitable consultant as part of the claims process.
Start your motorcycle accident claim by calling Mooneerams – the personal injury solicitors
If you or a family member has been involved in a motorcycle accident and you are thinking of making a claim, call Mooneerams on 029 2048 3615
Our initial advice will be free of charge and without obligation. We will never put pressure on you to make a claim. We recognise it is entirely your choice whether to do so.
If you decide to take the next step and want Mooneerams to start the claims process, we will allocate your claim to one of our team members.
They will talk to you first about No Win No Fee arrangements as a means of funding your claim. You may have heard the term No Win, No Fee many times before. In a nutshell, by taking out a No Win, No Fee motorcycle accident agreement with Mooneerams, you will not have to pay a penny if you lose your claim.
Once your No Win No Fee funding agreement is in place, we will get on with your motorbike accident claim straight away
If you have any further questions, why not call us. Alternatively, you may be ready for us to start your claim now. Either way, call now on 029 2048 3615 or contact us online.
