Missouri Personal Injury Lawyer Blog

A recent article reported that a 48-year-old woman riding on the back of her husband’s motorcycle was killed in a Missouri motorcycle crash near Doniphan on Route 21. The Missouri State Highway Patrol said the accident was caused by a deer in the road that was struck by the motorcycle, which consequently was forced off the road and overturned. The Harley-Davidson was being driven by the woman’s 51-year old husband, who was seriously injured and flown to a hospital in Memphis, Tennessee for treatment.

Riding a motorcycle can be an exhilarating experience, but being exposed on a bike makes a rider and passenger more vulnerable to the many dangers associated with a vehicle accident. No one can say if the accident above could have been prevented considering that the motorcyclist only had a short amount of time to react with the deer suddenly in the road. This incident is a reminder to all of us, motorcyclists, car owners, and truck drivers alike, that it only takes a second for some unforeseen hazard to pose a risk to us while traveling, which is why our undivided attention must be, at all times, on both the road and the vehicles that surround us.

According to the Missouri Department of Transportation’s 2007 traffic crash statistics, there was a total of 1,395 motorcycle, scooter, and moped accidents in which there were 61 fatalities and 1,306 injuries. Injuries from a motorcycle collision may include broken bones, leg and arm fractures, brain injury, spinal injury, internal organ injury and damage, lacerations and bruises.