In some ways, motorcycle crashes are like any other crash, and attorneys litigating car crashes will already have a sense for where to focus their energy when they encounter a motorcycle crash. There are some unique elements of motorcycle crashes though, that attorneys will benefit from keeping in mind. This post covers some of those unique items.

Nathan Rose, Jacob Palmer, and Michael Erickson of Explico reconstructed a nighttime, left turn across path motorcycle crash involving a Chevrolet Malibu and a Suzuki GSX-R750 motorcycle. The Chevrolet turned left across the path of the Suzuki. The left-turning driver stated that she did not see the approaching motorcycle prior to initiating her turn. The officers located a GoPro camera at the scene, which had initially been attached to the motorcyclist’s helmet.

Recently, PC-Crash simulation software [1] incorporated a single-track vehicle driver model for simulating motorcycle motion. In the past, a two-wheeled vehicle in PC-Crash would simply fall over - it had no stability. With the single-track vehicle driver model, the model will generate the necessary steering inputs and lean for the motorcycle to follow a curved path while remaining upright and stable.

In a prior post, I examined how certain motorcycle characteristics affect the deceleration when the motorcycle is sliding on the road: fairings, crash bars, frame sliders, etc. That post did not address the influence of a wet road. In this post, I offer a technical note to document studies that have shown that a wet roadway reduces a sliding motorcycle’s deceleration.