Motorcycle Accident Lawyers in San Jose

Types of injuries in motorcycle accidents in San Jose

The injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident are typically very serious. The rider has little protection and if the motorcycle is hit by a vehicle, the rider is thrown violently onto the roadway. The impact with the pavement can result in very severe injuries or loss of life. Some of the most common types of injuries include:

• Spinal cord injuries: These injuries may lead to a lifetime of challenges, with the rider living with paraplegia or quadriplegia. These injuries require long-term medical care and treatment and total changes to lifestyle and ability to work, along with pain and suffering, loss of quality of life, and emotional anguish.
• TBI (traumatic brain injuries): Even when wearing a helmet, a brain injury can occur when the rider is thrown onto the pavement. A TBI is one of the most difficult to treat or predict how much the victim will recover and how long it may take. These injuries can lead to a lifetime of physical, cognitive, and emotional impairments.
• Broken bones: The impact with the pavement is often so forceful that bones of the arms, hands, legs, or torso break — often seriously — and may require a series of surgeries to attempt to repair.
• Internal injuries: A rider thrown onto the roadway is subject to secondary impacts from other moving vehicles and the force of the impact on the pavement. This can result in internal injuries, organ damage, and other very serious or catastrophic injuries.
• Head and neck injuries: The head and neck may impact the roadway in a collision with a vehicle, leading to very serious and painful injuries that require surgical intervention.
• Back injuries: A rider that impacts the pavement on their back can sustain bone, muscle, and tendon damage that is very difficult to treat. These injuries often require many months of rehabilitation and can result in long-term pain and suffering, which affects every area of life.
• Severe soft tissue injuries (road rash): When a body hits the pavement, it’s in motion. The movement along a rough road surface causes “road rash” (severe skin damage). The dirt, grit, and other substances embedded in the skin cause serious infections, making these injuries very difficult to treat and possibly leaving the individual disfigured.
• Lacerations: Lacerations are skin wounds that have torn the skin. Treating these injuries often leaves a painful, disfiguring scar.
• Joint injuries (hand, wrist, hip, knee, shoulder): It is common for a rider to suffer damaged joints in a motorcycle accident. The impact on the roadway is so powerful that the knee, hips, wrist, hand, or shoulder can be seriously injured and may require advanced surgery to attempt to correct.
• Amputations: A limb can be so dramatically injured that it cannot be repaired and must be removed, forever changing the life of the injured rider.