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Motorcycle Accidents
Posted by: Cheryl Martin
June 02, 2010
Topic: Personal Injury
MOTORCYCLE RIDERS- DID YOU KNOW THAT YOUR DECISION NOT TO WEAR A HELMET CAN NOT BE "USED AGAINST YOU"?
If you are injured in a motorcycle crash, even if you suffer injuries to your head, your decision not to wear a helmet can not be "used against you" in your case. Since Colorado does not have a mandatory helmet law, a rider's decision not to wear a helmet can not not be used as evidence, should a case proceed to litigation, as either contributory negligence or a failure to mitigate damages. The Colorado Supreme held that "evidence of plaintiff's failure to wear a protective helmet is inadmissible to show negligence on the part of the plaintiff or to mitigate damages." Dare v. Sobule, 674 P.2d 960, 962 (Colo. 1984). The Supreme Court determined that the consequences of a defendant's negligence should not be diminished by the plaintiff's failure to anticipate the defendant's negligence. The Supreme Court reasoned that allowing evidence of a plaintiff's failure to wear a helmet would result in a windfall to the wrong doer by allowing them to pay for only a portion of their negligence. It also found that allowing evidence of failure to wear a helmet would lead to a battle of the experts over which injuries would not have been caused in plaintiff had worn a helmet. Thus, a motor cycle rider's decision to ride (as either the operator or passanger) without a helmet does not affect one's ability to recover fully from the person who is at fault for the collision.
