Twentynine Palms Motorcycle Personal Injury Attorney

Twentynine Palms Motorcycle Personal Injury Lawyer Sebastian Gibson

The Right Choice in Motorcycle Accident Personal Injury Attorneys in Twentynine Palms

After representing numerous U.S. Service Members from the Twentynine Palms Combat Center, Twentynine Palms Motorcycle Personal Injury Attorney Sebastian Gibson has found it is all too common when we learn of yet another motorcycle accident involving a Marine from Twentynine Palms. Marines from our area and throughout the country give so much to our nation and to children every year at Christmas time, more must be done to make it safe for them here at home in the Palm Springs, the Coachella Valley, in the Twentynine Palms area and throughout the country.

U.S. Service Member Motorcycle and Car Accident Fatalities – A National Tragedy

It’s a national tragedy that so many of our U.S. Service Members who we owe so much to, come home from the dangers they’ve faced in war torn countries, only to suffer a catastrophic injury or fatality in traffic accidents on their motorcycles and in their cars. The number of fatalities suffered by off-duty Marines at the Twentynine Palms Combat Center is a perfect example.

Fatalities Suffered On California Roads By Off-Duty Marines and Other U.S. Service Members

Some have tried to explain the disproportionate number of Marine and other U.S. Service Members accidents and deaths on the roads and particularly on sport bikes on a changed perception of risk by military personnel after they’ve been shot at and survived serving in a war zone. They’ve had bullseyes on their backs and on their chests, yet they survived. They’ve had explosions going off all around them, yet they made it back, though not always in one piece.

It’s understandable if they feel they need the adrenaline rush of being on a high speed sport bike.

But that doesn’t mean, we as a society who owe so much to these soldiers and Marines can then allow our young men and women to survive the risks they faced in places like Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria only to now perish on a two lane highway because car drivers fail to look out for motorcycle riders or because the road conditions favor the safety of passenger vehicles over motorcycles.

Because we pay our servicemen so little for their service, many can’t afford a nice car. But they can afford a motorcycle. And we certainly can’t blame them if they want a ride that has some real power and speed. But there are some unique risks that come with riding a motorcycle.

Motorcycle Riding Requires More Cognitive Thinking And Being At Your Physical Best

A motorcyclist must constantly be thinking whether they can be seen by the drivers that pose a risk to them, whether they are in a driver’s blind spot, whether they can split lanes without being killed, whether they can even change lanes without being run down by that person texting or weaving, whether they’re going too fast for a corner or curve, and what road hazard they’re most likely to come upon next after having just avoided the last one.

Riding while sick, hungover, stressed out, tired, hungry or while not at your best can also be deadly.

The Disadvantage Motorcycles Have With Cars And Trucks

The average motorcycle weighs 600 pounds. The Honda CBR 250, one of the lightest sportbikes weighs approximately 340 pounds while the Harley-Davidson Street Glide Special weighs around 800 pounds.

Compare that to cars that on average weigh two tons or a garbage truck that weighs 32 tons when empty or up to 50 tons fully loaded. A big rig tractor trailer can weigh less than a garbage truck, but at 60 to 70 feet long and 8 to 9 feet wide, they are more than hazardous to a motorcycle rider unless both the motorcyclist and the truck driver are well trained and being careful on a freeway.

Car manufacturers have made a great many improvements to cars to protect the safety of their owners. But there simply haven’t been the same number or type of improvements to motorcycles to protect motorcycle riders. Partly, it’s the nature of the beast. You can’t surround a motorcycle rider with a crumple zone, for instance, as you can with a driver encased in their car. However, fuel tank airbags have been designed to reduce the risk of injuries and head trauma by preventing the rider from traveling into a vehicle in a frontal low speed collision.

Motorcycles With High Death Rates

According to information available, crotch rocket motorcycle riders have a four times higher mortality rate due to crashes than riders of other types of motorcycles. Crotch rockets, also called supersport motorcycles, reportedly make up less than ten percent of all motorcycles yet account for more than 25 percent of motorcycle rider deaths.

Why do crotch rockets have such a higher percentage of motorcycle deaths? Motorcycle buyers are drawn to crotch rockets because they can go fast, really fast. They have much higher horsepower than most other motorcycles and today have speeds of up to 200 mph or more.

As you would expect, speed is the highest cause of supersport or crotch rocket fatalities.

But it’s not just crotch rockets that cause more deaths than drivers of cars. Motorcyclists on all types of motorcycles taken together are 25 times more likely to die in a crash than car drivers and their passengers and are 5 times more likely to be injured.

Despite being the type of vehicle used in less than 1% of all miles driven in the U.S., the riders of motorcycles make up 15% of all traffic deaths per year on average.

There is an 80% chance of injury or death on a motorcycle in an accident, compared to 20% for people in passenger cars.

Motorcycle fatalities are fifteen percent of all traffic deaths, even though motorcycles are only three percent of all vehicles.

Primary Causes of Motorcycle Injuries and Deaths

Half of motorcycle fatalities in single vehicle crashes (where no other vehicles are involved) are related to problems negotiating a curve prior to the motorcycle crash. Almost 60% of motorcyclist fatalities in these single-vehicle crashes occur at night.

Head-on collisions with cars produce 78% of the fatalities of motorcyclists. The most common situation of these head-on collisions is when a car makes a turn. Another is when a motorcycle rider is trying to pass another car.

A common fear of motorcycle riders, and for good reason, is crashing into a stationary or oncoming object at high seed after being ejected from a motorcycle rider’s bike. A quarter of motorcycle fatalities are single-vehicle crashes with a fixed object.

In two vehicle crashes, nearly 40% involve the motorcycle hitting another vehicle turning left.

Of the 4,688 riders killed on motorcycles in 2013, 1,281 were killed on Cruisers, 578 were on Touring, 22 on Sport-touring, 269 on Sport, 945 on Supersport, and 42 on Off-road. Other or unknown had 889.

Motorcycle Deaths of U.S. Service Members

Motorcycle accidents are the leading non-combat cause of death for U.S. Service members. While non-motorcycle deaths have declined, motorcycle deaths have increased.

A study by the Desert Sun newspaper into the number of deaths of off-duty service members stationed at the Twentynine Palms Combat Center found that of the 28 Marines to die in off-duty crashes between 2007 and 2014, nineteen died in automobile accidents, seven in motorcycle accidents, and two as pedestrians. Extreme speed was a factor in more than half of the crashes.

Vehicle crashes are in large part what has in the past made the desert more dangerous for off-duty Marines than almost every other Marine Base in the U.S. Between 2007 and 2014, the base in Twentynine Palms suffered more non-hostile deaths, such as motorcycle crashes, car collisions and suicides, than war fatalities. Sixty service members from the base died in those years in war zones in the Middle East, while 64 have died on American soil, mostly in the High Desert area close to Twentynine Palms, while either stationed or training at the Marine base.

The Twentynine Palms Combat Center is isolated, more isolated from major population centers than all other marine bases. The nearest larger population center for nightlife, and a greater number of places for dining and shopping is Palm Springs. A number of music festivals including Coachella, Stagecoach and Desert Trip require first going downhill toward Palm Springs and then traveling another 20 miles east on Interstate 10.

Palm Springs and the other Coachella Valley cities of Palm Desert and Indio require traveling down Hwy 62, which has in the past been called a “killer highway.” Today, Hwy 62 has undergone significant safety improvements, and an effort has been made on the base to reduce these deaths.

In the Marine Corps, high-speed bikes have accounted for the majority of motorcycle fatalities. In 2007 for instance, 78 percent of the motorcycle accidents involving Marines occurred on a sport bike.

Car Drivers Need To Realize That Motorcycle Rider Next To Them Could Well Be Someone Who Risked Their Life For Our Country

The deaths of U.S. Service Members, if nothing else, shows how important it is that more needs to be done to improve the safety of motorcycle riders in California and the U.S. Road safety and technology has primarily been focused in the past on improving safety for car drivers. Now it’s time legislators and drivers to stop thinking motorcycle riders don’t deserve the same protection because they all wear leather jackets and helmets or because their motorcycle is loud. We owe it at the very least to our U.S. Service Members.

Call Twentynine Palms Motorcycle Personal Injury Attorney Sebastian Gibson For Your Motorcycle Accident

With offices in Palm Desert and Newport Beach to handle motorcycle accidents up and down the coast of California and to the east, the law firm of Twentynine Palms Motorcycle Personal Injury Attorney Sebastian Gibson specializes in motorcycle accidents, truck crashes, bicycle and pedestrian injuries, car accident collisions and wrongful deaths for victims in Palm Springs, the Coachella Valley, the upper desert, Orange County and all of California.

If you’ve been injured in a motorcycle crash and need a personal injury lawyer for a motorcycle accident anywhere in Twentynine Palms or anywhere in California from San Diego to San Luis Obispo, up and down the coast, in the mountain resorts or in the desert from Palm Springs to Twentynine Palms for a motorcycle accident with a car, truck, bicycle or pedestrian accident, call Twentynine Palms Motorcycle Personal Injury Attorney Sebastian Gibson at (760) 776-1810.

Twentynine Palms Motorcycle Personal Injury Attorney Sebastian Gibson has been named a 2024 Top Lawyer by Palm Springs Life Magazine for the 14th year in a row.