I was hit on my motorcycle in Texas. Will they blame me?

Riders start every claim with a bias against them

If you ride, you already know it. The first assumption an adjuster makes — and sometimes a juror — is that a motorcyclist was speeding, weaving, or showing off. Most of the time the evidence says otherwise. The most common serious motorcycle crash involving another vehicle is a car turning left across the rider’s path at an intersection or driveway, often by a driver who says they never saw the bike.

A motorcycle has the same right to the lane as any car, and a driver turning left has to yield to oncoming traffic, including motorcycles. “I didn’t see him” describes the driver’s failure to look; it does not move the fault to the rider.

The helmet question

Texas requires motorcycle riders and passengers to wear a helmet unless they are at least 21 and have either completed an approved motorcycle safety course or are covered by health insurance that pays for injuries from a motorcycle crash. Many adult riders in Texas legally ride without one.

Whether you wore a helmet does not decide who caused the crash. The defense may argue that a helmet would have made a head injury less severe, and try to reduce that part of the claim. That argument has to be proved with medical evidence, and it has nothing to do with a broken leg, a shoulder injury, or road rash.

What the other side will argue, and how it gets answered

Expect claims that you were speeding, lane splitting, or riding where the driver could not see you. Lane splitting — riding between lanes of stopped or slow traffic — is not legal in Texas, and if it was happening, it will be used. Speed claims are often built on nothing but the driver’s guess. Many modern motorcycles, and the car that hit you, record speed data. Helmet cameras, dashcams, business video, the damage to both vehicles and where the bike came to rest all answer the speed question better than a driver who admits they did not see you.

Texas uses proportionate responsibility. Even if some fault is put on you, you can recover as long as you are not more than 50% responsible, reduced by your share.

Injuries and insurance

Riders take the full force of a crash. Fractures, road rash that needs skin grafts, spinal injuries, and brain injuries are common, and recovery is long. Your own motorcycle policy may include uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage and personal injury protection; many riders have it, and it is often what fills the gap when the driver who hit them carried only a minimum policy.

Keep the bike, the helmet and your riding gear exactly as they are after the crash. The damage to them is evidence of how the crash happened.

If you were the passenger on the bike

A passenger on a motorcycle is in the same position as a passenger in a car: almost never at fault. A passenger can claim against the driver of the car that caused the crash and, where the rider shared fault, against the rider’s own policy as well. Texas helmet rules apply to passengers too, and the same limits on the helmet argument apply. If the rider is a family member or friend, making a claim against their insurance is not a claim against them personally; it is what the coverage exists for.

Authority: Tex. Transp. Code § 661.003 (motorcycle helmets) · Tex. Transp. Code § 545.152 (left turns) · Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code ch. 33 (proportionate responsibility)