Preserving Evidence to Strengthen Your Motorcycle Accident Claim
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Preserving Evidence to Strengthen Your Motorcycle Accident Claim (Podcast)

In this podcast, John Maher speaks with Rob Mazow and Kevin McCullough of Mazow McCullough about the critical importance of preserving evidence after a motorcycle accident. They discuss the need for dash cams, taking photos at the scene, and gathering witness statements to strengthen your claim. The conversation also covers strategies for obtaining camera footage from traffic and security cameras. Tune in for practical advice on documenting evidence and protecting your rights after a motorcycle accident.

John Maher: Hi, I am John Maher and I’m here today with Rob Mazow and Kevin McCullough of the Law Office of Mazow McCullough. And today we’re talking about preserving evidence to strengthen your motorcycle accident claim. Welcome, Rob and Kevin.

Robert Mazow: Hey John. How are you doing?

Kevin McCullough: Hey John.

What Evidence is Important After a Motorcycle Accident?

John: Good. Yeah. So what are the most important pieces of evidence to gather after a motorcycle accident besides just contacting the police and exchanging information with the other driver?

Robert: I think that so many motorcyclists wisely are using dash cams. They’ve got their phones recording, they’ve got some sort of recording device, so in so many instances, the motorcyclist is going to be blamed regardless of what happened. So, a smart rider has a recording device on his or her bike. And certainly, to preserve that, make sure nothing happens to that, make sure you get it from the scene.

If the police take it, make sure to get it from them. That’s really probably the most critical piece of evidence that you should preserve. That and witness statements. Again, the other person in the motorcycle crash is inevitably going to blame the motorcyclist because there’s an innate bias against motorcyclists. It’s a prejudice. So to have independent witnesses and to have certainly video recorded would be the most critical piece of evidence to get from a crash.

What Steps to Take After a Motorcycle Accident

John: Okay. And motorcycle accidents, obviously they happen really fast and it’s really hard to maybe think clearly in the aftermath of an accident. What are some steps maybe that a motorcyclist could take to improve their chances of remembering some of the important details after an accident?

Kevin: John, it’s important to document everything obviously from the investigation point of view and gathering that evidence to preserve it is a big part of it. But that also assumes that you’re getting the immediate medical treatment that you need following a collision. And whether or not you can remain on the scene might not be a factor for you. If it’s a bad accident and you’re taken away by ambulance if you lose consciousness. But ideally, to Robert’s point, you definitely want to have a camera if possible. There are helmet cams, there are chest cams, there are cameras that you can set up in your motorcycle.

As far as the scene is concerned, taking photographic evidence. If for any reason you can’t take photographs at the time of the accident, when the police arrive and when the investigation is going on, you should try to return to that scene as soon as possible after the fact.

Oftentimes, there are cameras, whether it’s a ring cam from a residential home or a camera from a nearby business, and those are not kept for long periods of time or preserved. So it’s important to get to the scene, to look around to see what’s available to you, if anything, for potential camera footage, to knock on doors if necessary, to take photographic evidence of stop signs, traffic controls.

The angle that you approached, either the intersection or the roadway just before the collision could be important, could be helpful. Taking pictures of any skid marks on the roadway, whether from your motorcycle or from the other vehicle. Those are all important factors and indicators that if you don’t have the ability to do that and preserve that evidence at the time of the incident to try to get back to the scene as quickly as you can or to have a friend, a family member or an attorney or an investigator, go back to preserve that evidence because it’s crucial to the presentment of a client after the fact, after the dust settles and insurance companies get involved and start investigating.

John: Yes, right. I mean, and the good news is these days we all carry cameras now in our pocket on our phones. So we all have cameras that are available to us pretty much all the time. So as long as you’re physically able to take those pictures, you should be able to do that. But like you said, especially with a motorcycle accident, it’s possible or maybe even likely that you’d be injured enough that you wouldn’t be able to just walk around and be taking pictures. So like you said, as soon as possible, just get back to the scene and do that, whether it’s you or somebody else.

Robert: Yeah, correct. There was a case, basically just a real-life example, along the lines of what Kevin was saying, the skid marks can become critical and can make the difference between me being able to successfully present the case for an injured motorcyclist or not. There was a crash that happened not too far in Wellesley, Massachusetts where a motorcyclist was on one side of the road turning a corner and a motor vehicle driver, a car driver was coming around the same corner in the opposite direction and there was a terrible crash and the motorcyclist was injured very badly, and of course the driver of the car said, “Well, the motorcyclist was at fault.”

It turned out that using skid marks and eyewitness testimony and expert testimony, the other driver came into the motorcyclist’s lane. And without that critical evidence getting on that quickly, the motorcyclist would’ve been without any recourse to his medical bills, for his lost wage, for his pain and suffering, for his permanent damage. So it can’t be stressed enough how important getting that scene secured and getting those pictures taken becomes a part of the case.

What Dash Cam Features Should a Motorcyclist Look For?

John: Right. And Rob, you mentioned dash cams. I know that I’ve seen videos on YouTube of people in cars, certainly with dash cams and getting shots of accidents happen as they happen. But you said that they’re more and more likely with motorcycles now to have dash cams. Are they becoming very common and are there certain features of a dash cam that you should be looking for as a motorcyclist?

Robert: So, I haven’t gone down and studied it. I don’t ride motorcycles myself but I know that there are, just like we see in a car, there’s a device that will hold the camera. It can either be your phone or it can be a memory card of some sort with a dash cam, which is mounted onto the motorcycle. And a lot of times it comes into play when a car is backing out of a driveway onto a busy street and a motorcyclist is driving by and it’s having that video where the motorcyclist has to swerve out of the way to avoid being struck by the car.

It makes all the difference, by the way, even if there’s no contact between that car that’s coming out of the driveway and the motorcyclist, if the motorcyclist has to make an evasive move as a result of that car coming out of the driveway and is injured, the motorcyclist can recover against the other driver for negligently pulling out of the driveway. But my point is that having that video can show the necessity that it takes for a motorcyclist to have to make an invasive move when a car just pulls up without realizing that a motorcyclist is coming down the road.

What Information To Gather From A Witness to a Motorcycle Accident

John: And Kevin, I believe you mentioned, getting witness statements. Let’s say a witness sees the accident they offer, they stop, they offer to help. What information is the most important to get from them, and how can a rider ensure that maybe that witness will be willing to provide a statement later?

Kevin: It’s such an important thing, John, and what happens routinely is there is a motorcycle accident or a car accident, and people genuinely care. They pull over, they want to offer help and assistance at a minimum until medical personnel arrives or the police arrive. And oftentimes these good Samaritans pull over and they have critical information, eyewitness information, and they’re just there to help until someone arrives and then they leave.

Months later, we meet with clients who talk about how someone held their hand, how they lifted their head up and talked with them and comforted them and said that they did nothing wrong. But yet that information is not listed anywhere on the police report. And that’s because that individual or those individuals may have left the scene at the time that the police arrived thinking they did the right thing, and they’re handing it off to the professionals.

So, if there’s critical advice that I could offer to clients, especially motorcyclists, is if you’re ever in a collision or an accident and you are suffering injuries and you have someone there on the scene that you’re talking to, do your best to express the importance of that person staying on the scene, at least to give their name and contact information to the police. And if for any reason they can’t do that, if they could please note that information and leave that with you, that is just something that we see so frequently.

Again, as I mentioned, people want to help, but at the same time, they don’t want to get too involved. So capture that information when you can, when it’s available, just to be mindful of the fact that that person’s going to leave and you may never see or hear of that person again, but yet that’s your best witness. If a case has to go forward with a lawsuit or into court for a trial.

What will a Witness to a Motorcycle Accident Have to Do?

John: What can a witness expect in that case? Would they just get a call from the police perhaps and have a conversation, or would a witness be perhaps called into court if it ended up going that far?

Kevin: It is interesting, John, because typically witness testimony falls into two categories. One category is, “I didn’t see anything, but I heard something and I came onto the scene after the fact to help.” And that person should communicate with insurance companies, police, lawyers, and at the end of the day, that witness may not be called to get involved in the litigation or to testify because they truly don’t have a whole lot to offer about what happened.

And then the second type of witness that we see is someone who saw the entire incident, who is a critical piece of information. And if that witness explains what they saw and that gets documented properly, there’s a very good chance that that witness won’t be needed in the future because they’ll be able to explain the client’s story for them and what they saw and why the client didn’t do anything wrong. And those cases are likely to settle. So sometimes witnesses are nervous and they don’t want to get involved, so they leave and then they later get pulled back in and they’re questioned by lawyers or insurance representatives, “Why did you leave?”

If they stuck around in the first place and said what they saw and then went about their way, they probably wouldn’t be needed again. So, it is something that my advice to a witness who sees an event, be honest, be truthful, and try to have your information that you can share documented as quickly as possible to the appropriate authorities. And as I mentioned, if that happens, usually they don’t hear from anybody again after the fact because there’s no dispute over what happened. This person was there, they’re not involved, they saw the event, they immediately told it to the police, and that claim typically gets paid by the insurance company.

How to Obtain Camera Footage of a Motorcycle Accident

John: Okay. And then sometimes, I believe you mentioned that a motorcycle accident might happen in an area where there’s maybe a traffic camera or maybe a camera on the corner of a business pointing toward the street or something like that. So there might be some camera footage available. How does a person go about obtaining that camera footage that might help with the accident investigation?

Robert: So, what we tend to do is if it’s a serious case and most motorcycle crashes are serious, we’ll send an investigator out right away to the scene. I mean, first thing you can do is look at Google Map. I mean, you could look at a Google of the area and just look around and see whether you can see any cameras, any traffic cameras. But what we’re seeing a lot more of are private security cameras and ring doorbells and those kinds of doorbells, that record.

We’ve got several cases where we’ve sent investigators out to just knock on doors and all kinds of people, neighbors are willing to provide access to their reporting of an incident. And ring cameras or doorbells which record have captured many, many kinds of cases that have been helpful to show what really happened. As far as cameras that are put up by the city, those are a little bit more challenging to get access to, but there are ways to get access to through portals or contacting the local police departments to get access to those as well.

John: All right, well that’s all really great information. Rob and Kevin, thanks again for speaking with me today.

Robert: Thanks, John.

Kevin: Thank you, John.

Information About Mazow & McCullough

John: And for more information, you can visit the website of Mazow McCullough at helpinginjured.com or call 978-744-8000.

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