Can someone sue for compensation after a motorcycle accident if they weren’t wearing a helmet?
While wearing a helmet substantially reduces one’s risk of serious injury or death in a motorcycle collision and 18 states and the District of Columbia have universal motorcycle helmet laws requiring all riders to wear helmets, Colorado is among the majority of states which have an age requirement for helmet use on motorcycles. All operators and passengers under 18 years of age must wear helmets, however, helmet use is not required among operators and passengers over 18 years of age. According to the National Highway Transportation and Safety Administration (NHTSA) in 2019, motorcyclists were six (6) times more likely to die in a crash than people riding in a car.[1] Because of the effectiveness of helmets in preventing serious injury or death, helmet use is strongly recommended for all motorcyclists anytime that they ride.
When a rider doesn’t wear a helmet, he or she may wonder if they can recover from injuries sustained in a motorcycle crash when they are not wearing a helmet. The short answer is yes, but states differ in how they can limit or counter an injury claim for a motorcycle rider injured while not wearing a helmet. This is sometimes called “the Helmet Defense” and there are three different general approaches.
- Prohibition of Defense in its Entirety:
Sometimes non-compliance with a law (such as seatbelts) can be used as evidence in trial to mitigate or reduce a plaintiff’s right to recover non-economic (pain and suffering) damages. But in Colorado, there is no such law requiring law requiring helmet use for riders over 18 years of age and, as such, evidence of failure to wear a helmet is inadmissible at trial to show negligence on the part of the injured motorcyclist or to mitigate a plaintiff’s damages. This can sometimes be referred to as “comparative negligence” and accounts for the negligence causing the injury and is used to reduce damages in proportion to that negligence.
- Allowing a Helmet Defense to Reduce a Plaintiff’s Damages:
Most states will allow a defendant to introduce evidence suggesting that a plaintiff was not wearing a helmet to assist the jury in determining the appropriate amount of damages, the rationale being that failure to wear a helmet may potentially mitigate a plaintiff’s injuries. The states that have adopted this approach also will allow the jury to apportion fault between the parties involved, also known as “contributory fault”. And, provided that the plaintiff is less than 50 or 51% at fault for the collision, they can still recover for their injuries, but oftentimes the Court will reduce the amount that the plaintiff can recover in the damages awarded by the jury by the plaintiff’s percentage of fault.
- Allowing a Helmet Defense in Both Liability and Damages Phase of Trial
While the rarest among the states because a motorcyclist’s failure to wear a helmet does nothing in and of itself to contribute to the accident’s occurrence, and many states, like Colorado, do not legally require adult riders to wear a helmet, this theory would permit a defendant to argue that a motorcycle plaintiff’s injuries would not have happened had the motorcyclist been wearing a helmet and they should be held liable for that failure and have their damages reduced for that failure.
If you have any questions regarding liability in motorcycle collisions, or about insuring yourself to best protect you as a motorcycle rider, please contact the motorcycle accident attorneys at Bell and Pollock, P.C. who are more than happy to help you understand what liability and insurance coverages may be available to you to protect you and yours.
And remember, you can call us to request our book: Motorcycle Accidents (or How to Go Full Throttle Against the Insurance Companies). Just go to our website CHAMPIONS OF THE PEOPLE.COM or you can download a free copy.
[1] See https://www.iii.org/fact-statistic/facts-statistics-motorcycle-crashes#:~:text=In%202019%2C%205%2C014%20motorcyclists%20died,crash%20per%20vehicle%20miles%20traveled (last visited May 31, 2022).
