Tragic Accident Results in Death of Motorcyclist in Jacksonville, Florida
A sailor who had just come from a motorcycle safety course was killed after being struck by a vehicle driven by 19 year old Ana Brown, according to an article on Firstcoastnews.com. Apparently, Ms. Brown failed to yield and turned left into the path of the motorcyclist causing the accident and the resulting death. The tragic irony of the crash was that the motorcyclist was a certified motorcyclist who had just attended a class to maintain his certification as a safe motorcycle driver.
We have unfortunately seen a lot of serious injury and fatal crashes involving motorcycles. Two things such crashes involving a regular passenger vehicle or truck and a motorcycle often have in common are that the motorcyclist bears the brunt of the crash and suffers the significant injury while the other driver is typically unscathed and the other driver claims that he/she did not see the motorcycle. Too often, these crashes occur because the passenger vehicle or truck driver did not see the motorcycle, but that is most often due to the vehicle driver's failure to pay close attention to the road rather than the motorcyclist's inappropriate driving. In a crash such as this, when a vehicle makes a left turn across traffic and hits the motorcycle, the vehicle driver likely did not see the motorcycle because he/she did not take the necessary steps to be completely certain the path was clear before turning.
Crashes involving motorcycles unfortunately often result in serious injuries or worse. The reason is obvious as motorcyclists are much more vulnerable to serious injury in a crash as opposed to someone driving a passenger car or truck. For that reason, drivers need to be particularly mindful of motorcycles on the road. When an accident like this occurs, it is often the result of a vehicle driver not meeting the standard of care of watching out for all of the other vehicles on the road.
