Yes, you do have a case against a driver or another party even if you weren’t wearing a helmet at the time of your motorcycle accident in Wilmington, North Carolina. However, the value of your financial settlement could be reduced based on the type of injuries you suffered and whether wearing a helmet likely could have prevented them.
What Is North Carolina’s Helmet Law?
In North Carolina, the universal helmet law makes it mandatory for all motorcycle riders and their passengers to wear safety helmets for the duration of their rides. An approved helmet is one that meets federal safety standards and fits properly and securely on the wearer’s head. Unlike in many other states, there are no exceptions to the helmet-wearing requirement based on age, years of experience or insurance status.
How Can Failing to Wear a Helmet Affect a Motorcycle Accident Case in North Carolina?
Your failure to wear a helmet in direct violation of North Carolina law is not automatic grounds for another driver’s insurance company to reject your motorcycle accident injury claim or refuse an insurance settlement. Since your lack of helmet-wearing was not the cause of the motorcycle wreck, it will not place full liability for the crash on you.
Under the state’s fault-based car insurance law, liability or financial responsibility goes to the person or party guilty of causing the accident. However, if you weren’t wearing a helmet at the time of your motorcycle accident and you suffered a head or brain injury in the collision, an auto insurance company can use the fact that you weren’t obeying North Carolina’s helmet law against you to reduce your settlement.
If the insurer can prove through evidence such as accident reconstruction or medical expert testimony that your head, brain or facial injuries existed or were made worse because you weren’t wearing a helmet, this could diminish your settlement by your percentage of fault. This defense will only work if your injuries can be traced back to your lack of helmet use; you can still pursue full compensation for non-head injuries.
North Carolina’s Contributory Negligence Law
A unique challenge is presented by North Carolina’s contributory negligence law. Under this rule, if an injured accident victim is allocated any amount of fault or liability for a motorcycle accident, this will disqualify the plaintiff from recovering any financial compensation at all. This rule differs from the comparative negligence laws found in most states, where partial fault simply reduces the plaintiff’s settlement by an equivalent amount.
In a motorcycle accident case in North Carolina where the victim wasn’t wearing a helmet, a car insurance company could use any finding of contributory negligence as a reason to bar the victim from recovering financial compensation from the other motorist entirely.
How to Prove Your Motorcycle Accident Case if You Weren’t Wearing a Helmet
The helmet defense could significantly diminish or even take away your settlement as a motorcycle crash victim in North Carolina, depending on the circumstances. To protect your right to recover compensation, it is recommended that you hire our experienced motorcycle accident attorney at Shipman Wright & Moore, LLP to represent you during the claims process.
Your lawyer can craft a stronger case and combat the helmet defense with evidence such as witness statements, crash reconstruction, expert testimony, photographs, traffic camera footage, vehicle damage patterns and cell phone records. An attorney can challenge assumptions and biases against motorcyclists often harbored by insurance providers to maximize your compensation as much as possible, even if you weren’t wearing a helmet.