While riding can be great fun, you do take a big risk every time you leave your Saint Petersburg driveway on your motorcycle. Due to the design, a two-wheeled vehicle is always more susceptible to tipping, sliding, and skidding. Naturally, less experienced riders are more likely to have an accident as a result, but there isn’t a rider out there that is invincible. Mistakes are made every day and they can lead to serious injury, or worse. These are even more common when roads are under construction, busy with traffic, in poor condition, or in the midst of a bad weather system.
What surprises some new bikers is that nearly half of all motorcycle accidents are single-vehicle crashes. That is to say that there is no one else involved. How does a person get in an accident when there aren’t any other vehicles involved? In many cases, poor driving habits are to blame.
Speeding Approximately half of all single-bike accidents involve speeding. Recently, a survey was performed by a well-known insurance agency and it found that more than two-thirds of all drivers admit that they exceed the posted speed limits. A third went further, stating that they exceed it by at least five miles per hour. What many people don’t understand is, for every mile per hour increase in speed, the stopping distance increases. The faster a vehicle is going, the longer it will take to stop it. Furthermore, the greater the speed at which one travels, the more likely it is that the accident will be fatal. The statistics say it all; speeding is involved in more than thirty percent of all crashes and it ultimately results in one thousand deaths every month. The risk that comes with speeding is much greater when the driver is atop a motorcycle.
Drinking and Riding Of the total number of single-bike accidents, more than forty percent of the riders had blood alcohol levels greater than the legal limits. It is well known that alcohol affects the way that one drives. It can impair vision, slow reaction time, make it more difficult to concentrate, increase drowsiness, and make it tough to multitask. Knowing this, why would one ever attempt riding a motorcycle after drinking?
There are some experienced riders that tease the novice riders about tipping their bikes at an intersection, or in a driveway for that matter, but single-bike accidents are not a laughing matter. On average, one thousand bikers will die per year, as a result of single-vehicle accidents. Another twenty-five thousand will be injured annually. The faster the rider is traveling, and the less mentally prepared he or she is, the more likely it is that the ride ends tragically.
While speeding and alcohol account for a vast number of the single-bike accidents, not all of them are the fault of the riders. At times, vehicle malfunctions, poor road conditions, or another driver can cause a biker to lose control of his or her automobile. When this is the case, a personal injury attorney in St. Petersburg should be contacted. It may be possible to collect damages, great enough to cover related medical- and repair expenses. The goal, however, should always be to enjoy the ride and arrive at home without injury or sadness, so please, ride responsibly!