The official first day of spring will not arrive for another couple of weeks. Just the same, the weather starts to warm up in the Reno area in March and April, and that means that more motorcyclists in the area will be pulling their bikes out of their garages for a ride.

For drivers of other vehicles, this is a great time for a reminder that, as they travel along Nevada’s roads and highways, they need to be on the alert for motorcyclists. If they are not, they can cause serious motorcycle accidents that are relatively likely to leave the motorcyclist seriously injured or even dead.

According to recent research , drivers of other vehicles still need to be a better job of training themselves to be on the lookout for motorcyclists. In most cases, collisions between motorcycles and other vehicles happen because the driver of the other vehicle interferes with the motorcyclist’s right-of-way.

Motorcycles are naturally smaller and, thus, are easy to lose in a larger vehicle’s blind spots. Moreover, motorcyclists have to handle their vehicles differently than do the drivers of other vehicles. Many times, drivers just are not preparing for these differences when traveling behind or near a motorcycle. The ongoing problem in this country with distracted driving certainly is not helping matters in this respect.

Motorcyclists experience more than their share of fatal accidents. Although motorcycles account for less than 5 percent, or 1 in 20, of all vehicles registered in the country, as of 2016, motorcyclists accounted for 13 percent of all traffic-related deaths. It is imperative that drivers of other vehicles stay especially on alert for motorcyclists and take the appropriate steps to prevent accidents. If they fail to do so and cause an accident, they can be held financially accountable.

People in the Reno area who take a few moments to look at a truck can probably recognize that, if a trucker gets in to an accident, it is going to be a serious affair. Given that trucks are much larger and heavier than most of the vehicles around them, motorists in private passenger cars can quite easily suffer a fatal injury following a truck accident. This is true whether the collision happens on Nevada’s interstates and principal highways and city streets.

According to recent statistics , which date back to 2016, about one-third of all deadly truck crashes can be attributed to what the study refers to as a driver-related factor, that is, some error or omission on the part of the truck driver or other motorist involved in the accident. In all types of fatal crashes, the predominant contributing factor was driving at an excessive speed. However, the second most common driver-related factor varied with whether or not a large commercial vehicle was involved in the accident.

For large trucks, the second most common driver-related factor was inattentiveness. In cases involving family cars and other private vehicles, the second most common factor was impairment, which includes drunk and drugged driving, fatigued driving and even accidents caused by a driver’s physical health.

The inattentiveness category is rather broad and covers a lot more than just texting and driving or talking on a cell phone. Suffice it to say that it is very important that truckers pay full attention to the road at all times. No matter how much of a hurry they may be in, it is also important for them to maintain a safe speed.

A 67-year-old woman local resident has died after she was recently hit by a car. Police arrested the man who hit her and charged him with a serious drunk driving offense.

It is, of course, never acceptable and always dangerous to drive while intoxicated. As our blog has discussed on many previous occasions, alcohol in even moderate quantities can make it very difficult for a driver to exercise the control and judgement necessary to operate a vehicle safely.

The interesting thing about this case is that, while the woman seems to have been crossing the street at a crosswalk, she was crossing in the face of a red light. The man who hit her actually had a green light at the time of the incident.

Police are continuing to investigate this drunk driving accident and have even asked members of the public to come forward, should they have information. However, this appears to be a situation in which both the driver and the pedestrian could have done some things better.

Particularly, since the driver was drunk, the family of the victim should not give up hope that they could be able to get compensation for the victim’s medical bills, funeral expenses, lost wages and the like. This is because Nevada has a modified comparative fault law, which means that if a jury finds the pedestrian less than 50 percent at fault, compensation would still be available.

Whether comparative fault is a viable avenue in this situation is really a question best answered by an attorney in the Reno area who has had an opportunity to review the details of this tragic case. A family could rely on this attorney for help understanding their options.

A previous post on this blog talked about how Nevada’s legal blood alcohol content (BAC) limit remains at .08. But, one of our state’s neighbors has lowered the legal limit .05. It is the first state in the country to do so.

We have talked about this on a previous post. First, .08 BAC is not some magic number in which a person instantly goes from sober to drunk. In fact, there is plenty of scientific evidence which suggests that lowering the legal limit to .05 is consistent with the reality of how alcohol affects one’s system. By the time he reaches .05 BAC, a person will have noticeable problems doing this things necessary to operate a motor vehicle safely.

Furthermore, although is true that .08 is the legal limit that applies fairly strictly in a criminal case, whether someone was a drunk driver for the purposes of a civil negligence case is an entirely different matter. If a driver injuries a pedestrian, another motorist or anyone else, and that driver’s alcohol use contributed to the accident, then the driver may owe compensation to the accident victims. In some cases, punitive damages may be a realistic possibility. This is so even if the person was not legally drunk, that is, over .08 BAC.

However, as one might be able to guess, it can be difficult to get compensation from someone who blew below .08 and thus can deny that he was legally drunk at the time of the accident. Proving such a person is responsible for the accident will take a lot of investigation , and the investigation may include accident reconstruction, analyzing toxicology reports and the like.

Our skilled and experienced attorneys are prepared to help Nevada residents who got hurt in a crash pursue compensation for their injuries. If alcohol is suspected, we can take the steps necessary to defend our client’s rights to compensation to the fullest extent of the law.

A woman who was trying to cross the street in the south part of Reno has reportedly suffered a broken leg after a motorist struck her with his vehicle.

The woman was crossing the street in a crosswalk in the early evening hours of a recent weeknight. It was after dark when the motorist drove in to the crosswalk, striking the woman. The driver apparently remained at the scene and explained that he simply did not see the woman crossing the street.

Police indicated that they did not suspect that drugs or alcohol were contributing factors in this accident. They did, however, issue a ticket to the driver for failure to yield. Nevada law requires that motorists yield to pedestrians in crosswalks. Under the law, the fact that it was dark out or that the pedestrian was hard to see are not excuses for failing to yield and hitting a pedestrian in a crosswalk.

While thankfully the woman’s injuries do not appear to be life-threatening, a broken leg can be a very serious affair. In addition to the obvious costs of ongoing medical treatment, the woman may have to take some time off of work because of this injury, especially if her job requires her to move around.

Additionally, the woman has likely experienced some pain and suffering as well as emotional distress in connection with her being hit unexpectedly by a car.

This story only serves to reinforce how important it is for drivers on the streets of Reno to be on the lookout for pedestrians, especially in and around crosswalks. When drivers through inattentiveness or some other form of carelessness fail to do so, a victim may hold the driver legally accountable.