What Happens After Suffering a Brain Injury From a Motorcycle Accident?

Riding a motorcycle involves an inevitable tradeoff between risk and reward. Riders get the exhilaration of wind in their faces and a sense of freedom but must accept that accidents can and do happen.

One of the biggest dangers in a motorcycle accident is the risk of a severe head injury. Even when riders wear helmets, they face a far-higher likelihood of head injuries compared to occupants of passenger vehicles.

Continue reading along to learn more about brain injuries after a motorcycle accident, and legal options for motorcyclists who sustain brain injuries in traffic accidents.

How a Motorcycle Accident Brain Injury Can Derail Your Life

A brain injury occurs when the brain sustains direct or indirect damage from a violent blow. The impact itself can inflict harm directly to brain tissue, such as by fracturing the skull or “rattling” the brain within the skull and damaging nerve cells (known as “axons”).

An impact can also lead to bleeding and swelling inside the skull, which can put pressure on the brain that damages tissue and nerve endings. The resulting brain injury can inflict a wide variety of symptoms depending upon what part of the brain is affected.

Our brains are the control system for our bodies, and the center of consciousness, emotion, and our sense of self. Damage to brain tissue can interfere with any of these functions. As a result, victims may experience:

• Loss of consciousness, including coma and permanent semi-conscious states.
• Motor deficits, such as paralysis, numbness, weakness, and an impaired ability to perform certain gestures or movements, including functions as critical as swallowing or chewing.
• Speech and language deficits, including an inability to form words, slurred or slowed speech, loss of the ability to read or to understand speech.
• Cognitive deficits, such as long-term memory loss, forgetfulness, reduced ability to reason or organize thoughts, and the loss of understanding of numbers or other abstract concepts.
• Emotional deficits, including mood swings, anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts and actions, and uncontrolled temper; and
• Other functional deficits, such as insomnia, fatigue, persistent headaches, social isolation, and an inability to recognize and respond appropriately to social cues.

These are just some of the ways a head injury can interfere with a motorcycle accident victim’s daily life. Others close to the victim also feel the impact of these symptoms. Head injuries frequently cause emotional strain within families and close relationships. In other words, it can be difficult for everyone who cares about the victim to adapt to the setbacks the injury caused.

Understanding Brain Injuries from Motorcycle Accidents

Motorcycle accidents can cause a spectrum of brain injuries, ranging from mild to life-altering. Here’s a breakdown of some common types:

Mild Injuries:

• Concussion: A temporary disruption of brain function, often involving brief loss of consciousness, headache, dizziness, and memory problems. While typically mild, proper rest and recovery are crucial to prevent long-term complications.

Moderate to Severe Injuries:

• Diffuse Axonal Injury (DAI): Occurs when the brain shakes violently inside the skull, damaging microscopic nerve fibers. Symptoms like impaired thinking, speech, and coordination can develop gradually, making diagnosis challenging.
• Coup-Contrecoup Injury: Results from the brain hitting both sides of the skull due to a strong impact. Common in high-speed motorcycle accidents, it can cause a range of serious complications.
• Hematoma: Bleeding within the brain or skull cavity. Blood clots formed can deprive brain tissue of oxygen, potentially leading to stroke or death if left untreated.

Recovery and Treatment:

The severity of the injury determines the treatment course. Mild cases may require only rest and medication, while severe injuries might involve surgery, long-term rehabilitation, and potential permanent functional limitations.

What are the Risks Associated with Brain Injuries after a Motorcycle Accident?

It’s no secret that riders risk brain injuries in motorcycle accidents. Yet, for years, researchers have studied ways to reduce those risks, principally through the use of helmets.

According to the Washington Traffic Safety Commission, “[t]he effectiveness of motorcycle helmets in preventing or lessening head injuries among motorcyclists is now widely considered a settled matter by researchers.” The short version of their findings: helmets substantially reduce the risk of a severe traumatic brain injury, but they cannot eliminate it.

In a typical motorcycle accident, the rider gets thrown from the motorcycle and lands on the road surface or collides with an object. Even at low speeds, the motorcyclist risks a severe blow to his head. Though a helmet can lessen the severity of the blow, there is only so much the helmet can do. Any rapid deceleration of a rider’s head, brought on by an impact with a road surface or object, may lead to a traumatic brain injury.

The Costs of Living with a Motorcycle Accident Brain Injury

The difficulties a motorcycle accident brain injury inflicts on victims and their families do not stop at emotional, cognitive, and functional challenges. Brain injuries also impose significant financial burdens on everyone affected.

Research from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) about the average cost of motorcycle accident injuries suggests that severe but non-fatal injuries can cost victims and their families millions of dollars in economic damage and harm to quality of life.

Here are a few of the ways the costs of a motorcycle accident brain injury can pile up:

Medical and Rehab Costs

Motorcycle accident victims, particularly those who have suffered brain injuries, typically need emergency medical care. All but the most minor brain injuries will require hospitalization, and severe injuries frequently result in lengthy stays in intensive care units. Even if insurance covers some of these costs, it rarely covers all of them. Bills from medical care can quickly climb to the tens of thousands of dollars or more.

And that is just the cost of medical care in the immediate aftermath of a motorcycle accident. Recovering from a brain injury frequently involves significant long-term treatment and a variety of physical, emotional, and occupational therapies.

Victims may require assistive devices and technologies to help them get around and to communicate with others. All of this therapy and equipment costs money—lots and lots of money. Insurance typically only covers some of it.

Loss of Present and Future Income

Motorcycle accident victims who suffer a brain injury frequently miss months (or more) of work while they struggle to recover. Family members caring for those victims also often take time off from work to help care for the victim. Every day out of work costs money. The loss of regular income the brain injury victim contributed to a family’s budget can lead to a financial spiral.
The financial pain extends into the future as well. Motorcycle accident brain injury victims not only miss work, but also often find their ability to perform their job diminished by the effects of the injury.

Many brain injury victims cannot return to work at all. Some can return to work, but in a significantly-reduced capacity, both in terms of the amount of time they can spend working and the types of work tasks they can perform. Brain injuries frequently cause fatigue that limits hours at work. Other common deficits associated with brain injuries interfere with complex decision-making required at a job. Family members, too, may find they will have to work less to care for their injured loved one.

Quality of Life Costs

A brain injury can, quite literally, seem to change a person by affecting how the person feels about, perceives, and responds to others. Those changes are often profoundly upsetting for the brain injury victim. They also cause immense strain on family members and friends. Beyond the harm a brain injury can do to relationships, there are still more costs.

Brain injuries often prevent victims from engaging in life activities they used to enjoy. Many can never return to riding a motorcycle, for instance, or to playing sports or engaging in hobbies. Motorcycle accident brain injury victims can suffer from deep depression brought on by the radical changes in lifestyle the injury causes. Some even become suicidal.
It is difficult to measure the cost of these intangible injuries. But the NHTSA research above suggests it is multiples of the economic costs inflicted by an accident in some cases.

Addressing the Challenges of Motorcycle Accident Brain Injury

Motorcycle accident brain injury victims may need support as they recover from their trauma and move forward with their lives. Many struggle to afford basic medical care, let alone the extra support necessary to make a full recovery.

That’s why it’s also essential for motorcycle accident brain injury victims to find a third type of support: skilled legal help. An experienced Washington State motorcycle accident brain injury lawyer’s job is to help motorcycle accident victims and their families obtain compensation to help them pay for their recovery.

Here is how a motorcycle accident brain injury lawyer typically approaches that task:

• Investigation. The first order of business for an attorney representing a motorcycle accident brain injury victim or family member is to investigate the facts and circumstances of the accident to determine how the accident happened, who is at fault for it, and who can pay damages to the injured client. Attorneys accomplish this through investigation—collecting evidence, speaking with witnesses, and engaging forensic experts. The goal is to identify as many parties as possible who have potential legal liability for damages to the injured motorcyclist.
• Negotiation. After identifying potentially liable parties, the lawyer’s next order of business is to demand compensation from those parties and their insurance companies on her client’s behalf. Ideally, the parties will recognize their legal obligations and offer to settle the client’s motorcycle accident injury claims. But brain injuries are expensive. It is common for parties to resist paying the full amount of compensation that a motorcycle accident injury victim deserves. It takes a skilled negotiator armed with all of the important facts about her client’s motorcycle accident, brain injury, and financial needs to bring them to a sensible resolution.
• Litigation. Sometimes, despite her best efforts, an attorney cannot convince the legally liable parties to make a fair settlement offer to compensate her clients for a brain injury. In that case, the attorney and her client may decide to take the case to Washington courts and trust a judge and jury to determine a fair and just outcome. Not many motorcycle accident brain injury cases go to trial, but when they do, it is important to have an attorney who has years of experience and plenty of trials under her belt.

Motorcycle accident brain injury victims and their families should start looking for skilled legal help right away. Victims and their families should also not have to fret about added costs when hiring an attorney. That is why most motorcycle accident brain injury attorneys offer free consultations and take cases on a contingency fee basis, in which the client pays no money upfront, and the lawyer gets paid only a percentage of any settlement or jury verdict recovered on the client’s behalf.

There is Hope After a Motorcycle Accident Brain Injury

Brain injuries leave victims and their families feeling confused and hopeless. But there is hope after a motorcycle accident brain injury. Washington State has broad resources to help brain injury victims and their families. And even if bills start to pile up, skilled motorcycle cycle accident injury attorneys stand at the ready to help victims and families recover the compensation they deserve from those who did them harm. With some luck and persistence, motorcycle accident brain injury victims can recover and lead productive, joyful, meaningful lives.

Speak to a Motorcycle Accident Attorney Today

At Boohoff Law, our legal team routinely represents motorcyclists who have sustained brain injuries in traffic accidents. These are difficult cases, and injured motorcyclists may struggle to cope with the uncertainty of treating and recovering from a brain injury. An experienced motorcycle accident brain injury attorney can help you learn more about your legal rights after a motorcycle accident. So, don’t hesitate to reach out and get the support you need during this difficult time.