Kurt Arbuckle: My name is Kurt Arbuckle. I’m a lawyer in Houston, Texas, and I represent people who’ve been injured in motorcycle collisions.
This is a series of videos, and this is the 6th in the series. I’ve been talking about what kinds of collisions that result in motorcycle drivers having injuries are caused by the drivers of automobiles and trucks.
In this one, I want to talk about something called lane crowding. We’ve all seen motorcyclists, and sometimes we get perturbed at motorcyclists that cut between cars in traffic, and they’re not supposed to do that. The other side of that is that cars and trucks are supposed to give a motorcyclist a full lane.
Even if a motorcyclist is riding toward the right side of the lane, if a car wants to pass that motorcyclist, they’re supposed to get completely out of that motorcyclist’s lane, and into the adjacent lane to pass, and then, get back into the lane, in front of the motorcyclist.
Many motorists, however, don’t do that. They think that because it’s a motorcycle and it doesn’t take up the whole lane, they can cut by them and try to pass them without completely getting out of their lane. This puts a real peril in front of the motorcyclist, who may have to switch to the other side of the lane in order to avoid a pothole, which is much more dangerous for a motorcyclist than a car, or some other debris or slippery spot on the road.
What happens then is that the motorcyclist is unable to respond to an emergency. Unfortunately, oftentimes, these cars cut back in front of the motorcyclist too quickly and either startle the motorcyclist or run the motorcyclist off the road. This can result in the motorcyclist losing control of his vehicle, and becoming injured as a result of that.
Cars are supposed to maintain a complete lane for motorcyclists. If you’ve been injured because a motorist didn’t do that, it’s the motorist’s fault.