How Much Does a Motorcycle Crash Cost?

Sometimes, motorcycle accidents cost innocent riders more than their insurance deductibles. From equipment damage to job loss, sudden motorcycle crashes often result in unexpected financial strain. The National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that motorcyclists are 28 times more likely to suffer fatal injuries, ten times more likely to suffer severe injuries, and three times more likely to suffer injuries overall during traffic crashes.

Serious trauma often leads to higher medical costs, workplace disabilities, expensive litigation, and insurer pushback. It might take years to recover from a motorcycle crash’s economic impact, but accident lawyers may help claimants demand compensation for their injuries’ true value.

Common Causes of Motorcyclist Injuries

Driver negligence often causes motorcycle accidents. Riders often suffer the most severe consequences when careless drivers violate traffic safety regulations.

The most common legal violations resulting in motorcycle crashes include:

Motorcycles have the same rights as passenger vehicles. However, drivers often tailgate or unsafely pass riders lawfully traveling on roadways. Motor vehicle operators may mistakenly believe cars always have the right of way or file to look out for motorcycles in blind spots. Regardless of the underlying legal violations, even low-speed motorcycle-vehicle collisions commonly result in serious rider injuries.

Understanding the Financial Impact of Motorcycle Accident Injuries

Serious motorcycle crashes generally result in immediate, short-term, and long-term expenses. Immediate liabilities often include vehicle damage, emergency room bills, ambulance bills, and some lost wages or sick time. Short-term damages may involve medical follow-up and rehabilitation co-pays, pain medications, vehicle rental costs, and additional lost or reduced income.

Motorcyclists with mild injuries and personal injury protection (“PIP” or “no-fault) insurance may recover swift compensation for immediate and short-term expenses following a crash. Likewise, public or private short-term disability and health plans might cover a few months of lost income and treatment expenses.

Financial difficulties often arise after motorcycle crashes because they frequently involve life-altering injuries. Riders must consider not only expensive emergency medical bills but also the long-term impact of these conditions. Short-term disability and no-fault benefits typically run out after a few months, and riders may lose their medical insurance if they cannot work.

Accepting insufficient financial settlements might impact an injured rider’s ability to recover compensation for long-term losses. Motorcyclists injured by negligent drivers should discuss their realistic prognosis with their doctors and employers.

Accidents may cost riders their jobs and associated benefits, including health insurance and pensions. Further, out-of-pocket medical costs often add up due to weekly treatments, surgeries, specialized nursing care, and necessary household assistance. Claimants should consider working with dedicated motorcycle accident lawyers to calculate the true value of their claims.

Estimating Motorcycle Crash Costs Based on Injuries

Medical bills often account for claimants’ biggest expenses following motorcycle accidents. However, treating mild chronic injuries (such as herniated discs and nerve damage) can cost more than treating more serious traumas (such as leg fractures and concussions). Injured motorcyclists should assess the immediate, short-term, and long-term expenses associated with their specific injuries, including the seriousness of their conditions and overall prognosis. Consider the average financial damages associated with the following common motorcycle accident injuries.

Limb Fractures

The most common injuries suffered by motorcyclists include broken legs, arms, ankles, and wrists. The fracture type generally dictates the costs associated with treatment and rehabilitation.

Categories of fractures include:

• Hairline (greenstick) and transverse – Incomplete or straight-line breaks often associated with chipped bones and stress fractures. These fractures typically heal with soft casts and seldom require extensive rehabilitation. Most claimants only incur basic emergency room, follow-up, and over-the-counter pharmacy expenses totaling a few thousand dollars.
• Oblique – Diagonal breaks typically associated with most fractures. Patients may require a hard cast and rehabilitation after an oblique leg or arm fracture. These typically cost slightly more to treat than hairline fractures and may result in short-term disabilities.
• Spiral (twisting) – Occur when the break occurs in a spiral pattern, often when feet get trapped during collisions. These fractures typically require hard casts and even surgery. Patients might need bone fragments removed, the bone reset, and hardware inserted. Most claimants require months of physical therapy following cast removal. Twisting fractures may result in $10,000 to $15,000 in medical bills.
• Segmental – These breaks occur when the bone fractures in two or more places, leaving floating pieces of bone in the impacted area. Due to the various bones in the wrist, hand, ankle, and foot, segmentation often occurs when motorcyclists attempt to stop or break their falls after collisions. These fractures typically require surgery, hardware, casting, and rehabilitation costing thousands of dollars.
• Compression and commuted – These rare fractures frequently arise if vehicles run over injured riders. Compression fractures crush the bone, often resulting in commuted fractures (three or more broken and floating bone pieces). Treating compression fractures generally involves multiple surgeries, bone hardware, casting, and long-term rehabilitation. Some doctors even perform amputations if the fracture injured the bone, blood vessels, and ligaments beyond repair. These painful injures may result in substantial lost wages and close to $50,000 in medical expenses.

Serious fractures and resulting infections might also result in amputations necessitating expensive prosthetics and years of physical and occupational rehabilitation. These injuries could result in seven-figure financial losses when considering the claimant’s rehabilitation, surgical costs, prosthetics, and lost income.

Traumatic Brain Injuries

Accident-related head trauma generally qualifies as acquired traumatic brain injuries. NHTSA-approved motorcycle helmets prevent many severe and fatal brain injuries, but riders might still suffer from associated cognitive conditions. Personality changes, trouble focusing, depression, sleeplessness, chronic headaches, and memory loss might occur after head injuries. Motorcyclists might also experience vision loss and sensory difficulties after striking the pavement.

The costs associated with managing and treating traumatic brain injuries vary depending on severity. Patients in comas or vegetative states often incur hundreds of thousands in medical expenses each year. Even patients receiving at-home care often need expensive cognitive and physical rehabilitation, emotional therapy, and constant supervision.

Most motorcyclists suffering from severe head trauma lose their abilities to think critically, focus, or otherwise advance their careers. In addition to medical expenses, traumatic brain injuries frequently result in long-term unemployment and disabilities. These injuries may cause over a million dollars in lifetime damages.

Chest Trauma

Motorcycle accidents often result in broken ribs and punctured lungs. These chest injuries may occur when the rider impacts the handlebars during collisions. The handlebars could puncture the chest cavity causing contusions and internal bleeding, leading to oxygen deprivation and cardiac arrest. Treating broken ribs and chest contusions generally consists of rest and pain management. Serious internal bleeding and punctured lungs, however, may require emergency surgery.

These surgeries could result in lung infections and long-term breathing difficulties. Untreated injuries might also cause hypoxic brain trauma, which occurs when the brain doesn’t receive enough oxygen. In most cases, broken ribs and chest contusions result in short-term disabilities. Claimants without medical or disability insurance may incur a few thousand dollars in medical bills and three months of lost wages.

Burns

Riders often suffer from friction and thermal burns during motorcycle accidents. Friction burns (rug or rope burns) occur when hard surfaces scrap off the rider’s skin. These burns frequently occur when unprotected areas of the rider’s body slide across the rough pavement at high speed.

While friction burns often result in pain, scarring, and potential infections, they do not generally damage vital nerves and blood vessels. However, they can cost money to treat if insurers refuse to cover the cosmetic procedures necessary to reduce and prevent serious scarring. These procedures may result in tens of thousands of dollars in unpaid medical bills.

Thermal burns, including second and third-degree burns, often cause permanent damage. These burns may destroy nerves and blood vessels, preventing the area from healing. Claimants suffering from full-thickness burns after motorcycle accidents often require multiple skin graft surgeries, antibiotics, and long-term pain management regimens. These surgeries may also include uncovered but necessary cosmetic procedures to improve the claimant’s quality of life. Serious and extensive burns may result in six-figure medical bills and long-term disabilities.

Paralysis

Motorcyclists may disproportionately suffer from life-altering spinal injuries due to their environmental exposure. Both primary and secondary impacts may permanently damage or sever the spinal cord. Spinal cord injuries cut off the brain’s ability to control movement and feeling below the damaged area. Paralysis generally results in the inability to control voluntary leg movement.

Neck and upper back damage may also result in the inability to breathe or swallow without aid. Paralysis generally requires 24/7 nursing care, specialized equipment, and lifelong physical therapy and pain management protocols.

Paralyzing spinal cord injuries are generally the most costly long-term conditions.

Consider the average lifetime costs of spinal cord injuries if sustained by 25-year-old riders:

• High tetraplegia (quadriplegia) – Damage to the upper neck resulting in an inability to breathe or swallow. This condition generally results in $1,000,000 in medical costs the first year and another $180,000 annually. Lifetime costs average about $5 million before counting lost wages, pain, and mental suffering.
• Low tetraplegia (quadriplegia) – Damage to the neck’s lower area. This condition generally costs $700,000 in the first year and $100,000 each subsequent year, averaging $3.5 million in lifetime medical damages.
• Paraplegia – Damage to the spinal cord below the neck and lung area. Medical costs average $500,000 in the first year and about $70,000 each subsequent year. Paralyzed claimants typically incur $2.3 million in lifetime medical bills.
• Incomplete nerve damage – These conditions may result in temporary paraplegia but may improve with extensive rehabilitation, with lifetime medical damages for incomplete spinal injuries averaging $1.5 million.

Importantly, claimants and caretakers must consider any lost wages or career changes necessitated by the paralysis. Costs might also include household modifications, such as installing ramps and beds, as well as specialized transportation needs. The actual damages associated with these life-altering motorcycle injuries generally exceed basic healthcare costs.

Non-Paralyzing Neck & Back Injuries

From whiplash to herniated discs, neck and back trauma commonly occurs after motorcycle crashes. Non-paralyzing spinal injuries are the leading cause of disability worldwide. Claimants generally require a few months of chiropractic care and massage therapy to treat mild spine trauma. However, many claimants need high-risk spinal surgeries to fuse vertebrae and correct herniations. Untreatable nerve pain, numbness, and tingling might also accompany these injuries. Motorcyclists may incur over $100,000 in lifetime medical bills treating these painful but seemingly mild injuries.

These estimates assume singular injuries, but claimants generally suffer from multiple conditions following serious motorcycle accidents. Complications also commonly accompany serious traumas. These secondary conditions may include infections, fibromyalgia, and depression. Motorcyclists injured by negligent drivers should consider their prognosis, complication risks, and lifetime medical needs before requesting accident settlements and insurance payouts.

Additional Damages Associated With Motorcycle Crash Injuries

Medical expenses commonly overwhelm claimants immediately after motor vehicle accidents, but they generally decline after initial treatments. Calculating the true cost of motorcycle crashes means looking beyond initial hospital, rehabilitation, and medical equipment bills.

Long-term motorcycle injuries typically include:

• Lost income (salary or hourly wages)
• Lost workplace benefits (health insurance, life insurance, vacation time, 401K contributions, bonuses, and pensions)
• Lost career advancement opportunities (raises and promotions)
• Costs of household and personal care assistance (cleaning, cooking, dressing, and shopping)
• Re-education and career switcher expenses
• Lost enjoyment of life and previous activities
• Mental health treatment for frustration and depression
• Counseling for the personal and social impact of serious injuries

Eligible claimants might demand compensation for any damages caused by motorcycle accident injuries, including the incalculable value of their physical pain, mental anguish, and social difficulties stemming from the crash. Lost wages alone may result in hundreds of thousands in additional lifetime financial losses. Local attorneys might help victims of motorcycle crashes and their families understand their financial recovery rights and estimate lifetime damages.

It often costs nothing to consult and retain an accident lawyer near you, as most motorcycle accident attorneys work on a contingency fee basis. Speak with an experienced legal professional to discuss the true cost of your motorcycle crash.