Why do drivers crash into motorcyclists?

When you hear people talking on the TV about a traffic accident, they usually refer to the vehicles. For example, a car hit a motorcycle or a truck pulled in front of a bike.

Doing so makes it easy to forget that vehicles are inanimate objects. It is a person who causes the crash and a person, or several people, who get injured in the crash. Cars do not hit motorcycles. Drivers hit motorcyclists.

Drivers often do not see motorcyclists

While the odd raging driver has purposefully driven their vehicle into a motorcyclist, usually it is an accident. Typically they did not see you. Here are some of the reasons why:

• They were blind drunk: Even minimal amounts of alcohol affect people’s focus and vision.
• They only had eyes for something else: Distracted drivers are a massive problem. Whether they were staring longingly into the eyes of their loved one in the passenger seat or staring at their phone screen is irrelevant. Drivers need to keep their eyes on the road and their hands on the wheel.
• They were looking straight through you: Believe it or not, the driver may have been looking at the road without any distractions, yet they still missed you. The brain would overload if it took in everything around it, so it selects what it wants to focus on and ignores the rest. Try looking ahead now and see what you notice. Then refocus your eyes and see what else is in the frame that you did not see. Most drivers focus on cars, so that is what they notice. They are less likely to spot you on your motorcycle.

Understanding more about why drivers fail to see motorcyclists can help you nail down the reason they crashed into you. It will make it easier to claim the compensation you need if injured in a motorcycle crash.