One of the most common types of motorcycle accidents is a left turn accident. This happens when a vehicle turns left in front of the motorcycle, which can cause the motorcycle to strike the side of that vehicle.
Naturally, drivers need to wait until they have a proper amount of space to make a safe left turn. But when they fail to do so, many of them will say that they never saw the motorcycle at all. That’s why they believed it was safe to turn until the crash occurred. But how could this happen?
What type of vehicles do drivers expect?
The issue may be that drivers don’t expect to see motorcycles so they are statistically more likely to overlook them.
For example, there was a test where drivers were asked to observe a vehicle in a specific position. If that vehicle was a taxi, these drivers saw it roughly twice as often as they saw a motorcycle in the same spot. This is a psychological issue called inattentional blindness. It happens with a brief exposure to something that a person doesn’t expect, so they simply don’t focus on it and they may feel that they never saw it at all – even if they looked directly at it.
Additionally, there are issues with motorcycles being small and dark, making it easier for them to blend into the road. But no matter why a motorcycle accident happens, it can result in severe injuries for the rider. If it was the driver of another vehicle who caused that accident, the rider may then need to know about the legal options they have to seek financial compensation for medical bills, lost wages and more.