What you should do immediately if you are involved in a motorcycle accident with another vehicle in Kentucky or Indiana
What you do IMMEDIATELY after a motorcycle accident may prove crucial in preserving the evidence essential to preserving your legal rights.
Therefore, it is recommended that wherever possible, you should get the following information:
Note the precise time of the accident for comparison with the other driver's cell phone records.
Get the Name, Address, and Telephone number of the other driver.
Get the Drivers License Number of the other driver.
Get the insurance information of the other driver.
Get the make, model and year of the other involved vehicles and check the vehicle registration. Take down the vehicle owner's name and address, if it is a person or corporation or entity different from the driver. If it is a company vehicle, write down the name and address of the company. If it is a leased or rented vehicle, write down the name, address and telephone number of the rental company. If the owner of the vehicle is different from the driver, this may provide you additional sources for recovery. If the vehicle is owned by the driver's employer, this may provide evidence that the driver was operating his vehicle in the course and scope of his employment, which may render the employer, and its insurance company also liable.
Give the other driver your Name, Address, Drivers License Number and Insurance Information.
You should also look around immediately and identify any and all possible witnesses to the accident. Ask for their names, addresses, telephone numbers (both home and work), and where they work. If they do not want to get involved, then take down their car license plate numbers and States.
Listen carefully to what the other driver says about the events leading up to the accident, e.g., "I didn't see you.," and write it down. Note who else may have heard or overheard the "admission." ("Admissions" can generally be introduced in evidence against a party to litigation under the "admissions" exception to the hearsay rule).
Call the Police, or have someone else call the Police immediately. The police officer will generally interview all drivers and take witness statements from all witnesses still present. Tell the Police the facts, but "JUST THE FACTS." The police may also collect vital physical evidence and make important skid or debris measurements useful in "reconstructing" the point of impact and vehicle speeds upon which the auto driver's liability will often turn.
Ask the police officer to confirm the time of the accident with other witnesses so that you will have clear evidence of the time of the accident for comparison with the other driver's cell phone records. If the other driver can be determined to have been on his cell phone at the time of the accident this may aid in proving liability, given that those who drive under the influence of their cell phones are DUI level impaired and have a 4 times greater likelihood of causing an accident. If the other driver's cell phone call coinciding with the time of the accident is determined by appropriate investigation and discovery to have been a business call, or call made while driving within the course and scope of the driver's employment, this will permit the employer to be brought in as a defendant under respondeat superior vicarious liability theory, also making available the employer's insurance policy and assets.
Also ask the police officer to inquire to find out where the other driver was going. If the driver was on an errand for his or her employer, "in the course and scope of his or her employment," again, you may find you have another good "potential defendant," possibly with much higher policy limits than the driver.
Then, call experienced motorcycle accident attorney Jim Desmond.
