Who bears the responsibility for motorcycle accidents?
The Wall Street Journal reports that “adjusted for miles traveled, [motorcycle] riders were 34 times more likely to die in a highway accident than occupants of passenger cars in 2004.” The article also points out that motorcycles do much worse in accidents than cars.Imagine that a car driver makes a mistake and crosses a traffic lane without looking. As a result the driver hits a motorcycle and does, let’s say, £1 million of damage to the motorcyclist. But let’s also assume that if the motorcyclist were driving a car he would have suffered trivial damages. So my question is who should be responsible for the damage to the motorcyclist? The car driver’s negligence caused the accident. But if the motorcyclist were driving a more crash-worthy vehicle he wouldn’t have suffered anywhere near £1 million of damage so shouldn’t he bear most of the cost of the accident?