What Is a Major Cause of Death in Motorcycle Accidents?

Head injury is a major cause of death in motorcycle accidents. The Insurance Information Institute reports that helmets save the lives of many motorcyclists and that universal helmet use by motorcycle operators and passengers could save hundreds of more lives every year.

A Traumatic Brain Injury Can Cause Death After a Motorcycle Accident

A traumatic brain injury (TBI) is damage to the brain that results from trauma, like a motorcycle accident. The symptoms of a TBI can appear right away or develop over several days or even weeks after the accident.

Many TBI symptoms do not indicate the injury’s severity. Whether one has a mild or severe TBI, it is always a good idea to seek prompt medical attention for a head injury after a motorcycle accident. What feels like an insignificant bump to the head could cause a brain hemorrhage that can lead to permanent damage to brain tissue. If left untreated, brain damage can be fatal.

Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

When people have a mild TBI, they experience temporary dysfunction in the way their brain cells work. They might pass out briefly, or they might feel disoriented without losing consciousness. A head injury can also make a person with a mild TBI hypersensitive to sound and light.

Headaches are common with all levels of TBI, as are nausea and vomiting. The headaches could fade away after a few weeks or continue for years.

Sleep issues are also common. People with mild TBIs might feel drowsy all day, not be able to fall asleep, or sleep longer than they usually do. They might feel fatigued despite getting enough hours of sleep.

More Severe Brain Injury From a Motorcycle Accident

People with moderate to severe TBIs can experience the same symptoms as people with mild head injuries. People with more severe TBIs might also have slurred speech or be confused. They could experience personality changes, such as being irritable, aggressive, or simply “not themselves.”

The loss of consciousness is often longer with a more significant TBI than with a mild one. The person could be unconscious for a few minutes to several hours. They might not be able to wake up if they go to sleep. They could fall into a coma or another altered state of consciousness.

With more severe brain injuries, people can experience seizures. The pupils of their eyes can dilate, either in both eyes or only one. They may have unusual sensations in their fingers and toes, such as numbness or weakness.

Traumatic Head Injury Complications That Can Occur After a Motorcycle Accident

Some people recover reasonably well from head injuries, but many patients are not so lucky. Complications can impact a person’s quality of life permanently.

Degenerative Brain Disorders

When a person sustains multiple brain injuries or one severe head trauma, they might have a higher risk of developing a degenerative brain disease. Some of the degenerative disorders linked to brain injury include:

• Parkinson’s disease
• Alzheimer’s disease
• Dementia pugilistica, which occurs after experiencing multiple blows to the head and is common among boxers (according to the Cleveland Clinic)

Degenerative brain disorders can appear years after the traumatic head injury occurred. The patient can lose brain function, like memory, thinking, and controlling movement.

Personality Changes

People often complain that, after a severe head injury, they no longer “know” their loved one. The injured person might behave like a different person than before. Radical mood swings, uncontrolled anger, irritability, and depression are hallmarks of the personality changes many people go through after head trauma.

Changes in Sensation

Because the brain is, in essence, the control center for the body, disruption to brain tissue can cause sensory issues, like:

• Dizziness
• Difficulty with balance
• Double vision
• Frequent ringing in the ears
• Struggles with hand and eye coordination
• Disturbances of the sense of taste or smell

Some of these complications go away eventually, but some people suffer from these problems for years.

Cognitive Issues

A significant head injury can impair a person’s ability to think, maintain attention, reason, learn, and remember. Executive functions like planning, problem-solving, organizing, and multitasking can be a challenge.

Medical Complications

After a traumatic brain injury, a person can develop seizures, either immediately after the accident or years later. Vertigo and frequent headaches are common after a TBI. If the cranial nerves get damaged as part of the TBI, facial paralysis or numbness can happen as a result. Blindness, hearing loss, and difficulty swallowing can be a consequence as well.

States of Consciousness

Some of the most drastic complications of TBI include altered states of consciousness. A head injury from a motorcycle can cause a person to be in a coma, vegetative state, minimally conscious state, or fall victim to brain death.

How to Get Legal Help After a Motorcycle Accident

At Chalik & Chalik Injury Lawyers, clients get to work directly with the partners. We value you and treat you like family. Our clients receive personal, hands-on service.

We handle these cases on a contingent fee basis, which means that you do not have to pay upfront attorney’s fees. Our attorney’s fees will come out of the settlement proceeds or award at the end.

You can call us today at (855) 529-0269 to get started.