Jacksonville, FL — A man on a motorcycle (who wasn’t named) had to be hospitalized on Tuesday morning, June 16, after he was in a wreck with a pickup truck hauling two large tanks. Police said that this happened along Atlantic Boulevard in Jacksonville at about 11:00 a.m. Tuesday morning.
They said that a Ford F-350 pickup truck was making a left turn onto Atlantic Boulevard from Atlantic Circle, near the Enterprise car rental store. It was hauling two large tanks, the news said. The truck tried to make the turn onto Atlantic, but pulled into the eastbound lanes and into the path of a man on a motorcycle.
The motorcyclist wasn’t able to avoid hitting the F-350’s trailer and crashed, leaving the man with major injuries. The driver of the truck wasn’t harmed, but the motorcyclist had to be rushed to a hospital.
Right now, no charges are being filed because the police apparently need more time to investigate.
Map of the Accident
View from the Road
Commentary:
I’ve heard at least one person say that this motorcycle may have been speeding at the time of this accident. From a legal perspective, that means two things:
- It does not take away from another driver’s fault in an accident. This is sometimes referred to as contributory negligence, but the general idea is that two wrongs don’t cancel each other out. If a motorcycle is speeding when another car hits it in an accident, the “speeding” factor doesn’t take away from whatever mistake the other driver made.
- It may affect the way fault is divided out in the accident, as far as insurance companies are concerned. If you’ve had any experience with an insurance company, you know that they prefer not to pay on a claim if they can help it. When big medical bills and hospital visits are involved, some insurance companies will look for any way at all to put some of the blame on the other driver involved. If that’s a motorcycle and the accusation is speeding, then so be it.
Long story short, the division of fault in an accident has to equal 100%, meaning that someone is in charge of determining what really happened in any given accident that makes its way to the front of a lawsuit or an insurance claim. For the insurance carrier representing the “at fault” driver, blaming as much of the accident on other parties is a logical strategy for them. For the victim, however, it often takes some specialized investigating and detective work to make sure that all the evidence is gathered up and tells the truth. Often times – with motorcyclists – speeding is a common accusation because, frankly, it’s easy for people to believe a motorcycle was speeding even if they really weren’t. It’s called bias and it unfortunately plays a bigger role in evaluating things than it should.
— Grossman Law Offices
