road rash motorcycle injuries

Experiencing a motorcycle accident can have life-altering consequences, including serious or even fatal injuries. Motorcycle accidents frequently result in burns and road rashes, and these serious injuries can lead to a lifetime of expensive medical treatments. Your injuries could even keep you from earning a livable wage. 

If you’re involved in a motorcycle accident that was the fault of another driver, you need to hold them accountable and file a personal injury claim. That way, you can recover compensation for your property damage, medical bills, lost wages, and more. 

To increase your likelihood of recovering the damages you deserve for your accident, contact a motorcycle accident injury attorney. They’ll help you prove your claim and maximize the amount you can recover. 

What’s the Difference Between a Burn and Road Rash? 

Although motorcycle accident burns and road rash injuries may sound like they’re synonymous, not all motorcycle burn injuries result from road rashes. 

A road rash occurs when a motorcyclist burns their skin because it rubbed against the road. This often occurs from vehicle collisions or if a motorcyclist falls from their bike. 

Bikers can decrease their likelihood of suffering from road rash by equipping themselves with proper protection, such as motorcycle helmets and leather.

Road rashes are burn injuries, but there are other types of burn injuries that a motorcyclist may suffer from during an accident.  

Types of Motorcycle Burn Injuries

In addition to road rashes, bikers may suffer from burn injuries including fire burns, chemical burns, and exhaust pipe and engine burns. 

Motorcyclists may suffer from burns in a fire if the accident collision causes combustion. A vehicle’s gas tank could leak after a motorcycle accident, and if the gas ignites, a motorcyclist or another person involved in the wreck could suffer serious or fatal burn injuries.

Chemical burns also pose a serious threat to bikers. Because motorcycles don’t provide riders with the same outer protection as standard passenger vehicles, bikers are more vulnerable if they collide with a vehicle containing corrosive materials or other hazardous chemicals. 

Motorcycles and other vehicles contain metal on exhaust pipes and engines and these metals can reach burning hot temperatures up to 230 degrees Fahrenheit. If a collision throws a motorcyclist off of their bike and into hot metals, they may suffer from severe contact burns. 

Motorcycle Burn Degrees

When suffering from a motorcycle burn or another burn-related injury, there are four injury classifications based on their severity. These are:

  • First-degree burns: Damages the top layer of the skin known as the epidermis. These injuries are usually not too serious and only result in redness and swelling. You should seek medical attention after suffering this burn, but should recover in only a few weeks.
  • Second-degree burns: These burns typically damage the epidermis and the layer underneath — the dermis. When suffering from a second-degree burn as a result of a motorcycle accident, victims frequently experience blistering, swelling, and serious pain. 
  • Third-degree burns: Third-degree burns destroy the epidermis and dermis. Motorcyclists may not experience pain from this type of burn because it also destroys nerve endings. The skin will appear black, brown, yellow, or white. 
  • Fourth-degree burns: Fourth-degree burns are life-threatening because they destroy every layer of the skin as well as tendons, muscles, and bones. 

When it comes to suffering a road rash from a motorcycle accident, bikers may experience:

  • First-degree road rash injuries: Contact with the road leads to abrasion on the epidermis.  
  • Second-degree road rash injuries: The burn damages the epidermis and dermis and causes bleeding, but the contact with the road doesn’t tear the skin away. The wound should heal within weeks or months. 
  • Third-degree road rash injuries: A third-degree road rash is an avulsion injury to the skin, meaning it tears the skin away exposing the muscle and possibly the bone. These injuries result in permanent scarring and require surgeries, such as skin grafts. 

Recovering Compensation for Motorcycle Injuries

After suffering a road rash or another type of burn from a motorcycle accident, you can seek personal injury damages from the liable person. To recover compensation, you need to be able to prove that the other motorist was either partially or wholly at fault for the accident and your injuries. You can provide evidence including:

  • Photographic and video evidence, including smartphone footage, security cameras, dashboards cameras, and traffic light cameras
  • Eyewitnesses
  • Police accident reports
  • Accident reconstruction experts 

You can greatly increase your likelihood of recovering the compensation you deserve after an accident by contacting a motorcycle accident lawyer. They’ll help you by subpoenaing and gathering evidence, and they’ll use their many years of legal experience to present your case effectively.

For a San Francisco motorcycle accident attorney you can count on, contact Sally Morin Personal Injury Lawyers at 877-380-8852, or schedule a free case evaluation here. We can help you recover compensation for property damage, medical bills, pain and suffering, lost wages, loss of consortium, loss of future earnings, and more.

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If you’re someone who is considering an attorney for a personal accident, I highly recommend Sally Morin and her professional staff of attorneys. If you would like to know more details, feel free to contact me via Yelp and I would be happy to share more details. While I use Yelp quite often, I rarely post reviews… unless I’m truly blown away by great service (or angry with horrible service). If there were a sixth star, I would certainly give it to Rebecca and Sally!

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KNOW HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF AFTER AN ACCIDENT

It is essential to know your rights after a traffic accident so you can protect yourself and the value of your claim.
This guide will help you:

  • 1Know what to do when dealing with insurance claims, police reports and lawyers.
  • 2Avoid making mistakes that undermine the value of your claim
  • 3Put yourself in a position to get the best settlement possible