A Louisiana man driving a moped in a town north and west of Houma died in an accident after being thrown from his bike.
Although police indicated that they were continuing to investigate the accident, they said that it appeared a passenger car came up from behind the moped and struck it, throwing the victim off of his moped and in to a nearby ditch. Rescuers who responded to the accident pronounced the man dead at the scene.
While it happened a number of miles from Houma, the reason that we wanted the bring this story to our reader’s attention is that mopeds in many ways are like motorcycles.
For instance, they offer relatively little protection in the event of an accident, so a moped accident, like a motorcycle accident, is likely going to result in severe injuries to the rider. Moreover, mopeds handle differently than do cars and, unlike motorcycles, are not capable of traveling at very high speeds.
As a result, if a driver is not paying attention, he or she can come up on a slow-moving moped very quickly and cause a catastrophic rear-end accident like the one in this case.
Moped riders have the right to travel on most of Louisiana’s roads and streets. As such, drivers of other vehicles in Houma have an obligation to be on the lookout for moped riders and to give them the same respect and rights as they would any other motorist. If they do not, and an accident results, then the injured moped rider, or the family as the case may be, may choose to pursue appropriate legal action against the party responsible for the accident.