5 Most Common Injuries Sustained in Motorcycle Accidents

Motorcycle riders take on more risk on the road than any other type of motorist. When a crash happens, riders absorb the force directly — there’s no cabin, no airbags, no crumple zone. The injuries that result tend to be more serious, take longer to heal, and have larger long-term consequences than what a person in a passenger vehicle typically faces.

Why Motorcycle Injuries Are Different

A few facts that put motorcycle injuries in context:

• Motorcyclists are roughly 28 times more likely to die in a crash than passenger vehicle occupants, mile for mile, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
• Around 80% of reported motorcycle crashes result in injury or death — compared with about 20% for car crashes.
• Helmets reduce the risk of fatal head injury by roughly 37% and the risk of brain injury by about 67%, but no helmet eliminates the risk entirely.

The reason motorcycle injuries tend to be more serious isn’t complicated. A rider in a crash hits the road, the other vehicle, or both — at full speed, with whatever they’re wearing as their only protection. That’s true on the I-84 grade through Cabbage Hill, on the back roads through the Blue Mountains, and on the local streets of Hermiston and Walla Walla. The mechanism of injury matters more than the speed alone.

Common Motorcycle Accident Injuries

The injuries that come up most often in motorcycle cases:

Traumatic Brain Injury

Head injuries are the leading cause of death in motorcycle crashes, and they’re also one of the most common causes of long-term disability among riders who survive. Even with a helmet, the force of an impact can cause:

• Concussion — typically heals within weeks, but can have lingering effects on memory, concentration, and mood
• Mild traumatic brain injury — symptoms include headaches, dizziness, sleep disturbances, and cognitive issues that can last months or years
• Moderate to severe traumatic brain injury — can cause permanent cognitive impairment, personality changes, and the need for lifelong care

For claim purposes, brain injuries are some of the most complex cases to handle. Symptoms often don’t appear at the scene or the ER and instead develop over the following days and weeks. Documentation from neurologists, neuropsychologists, and treating physicians is critical. Brain injuries also tend to affect earning capacity, relationships, and quality of life in ways that take time to fully measure — which is one reason settling these cases too early routinely leaves money on the table.

Spinal Cord Injury and Back Injuries

Motorcycle crashes commonly cause:

• Vertebral fractures — broken bones in the spine, ranging from stable compression fractures to unstable injuries requiring surgery
• Herniated or ruptured discs — common in rear-end collisions and any crash with significant impact
• Spinal cord injuries — the most catastrophic outcome, ranging from incomplete injuries with partial recovery to complete injuries causing permanent paraplegia or quadriplegia

Spinal cord injuries are the highest-value motorcycle injury cases for a reason — the lifetime cost of medical care, equipment, home modifications, and lost earning capacity for someone with a serious spinal cord injury can run into the millions. These cases require working with life-care planners and economists to properly calculate future costs.

Road Rash

Road rash is the injury people associate most with motorcycle crashes. It happens when exposed skin contacts the road surface at speed, and it ranges from minor abrasions to severe wounds requiring skin grafts.

Road rash is graded by severity:

• First-degree — surface scrapes, similar to a carpet burn
• Second-degree — broken outer skin layer, deeper abrasion
• Third-degree — full-thickness skin loss, often with visible muscle, fat, or bone underneath

Beyond pain and disfigurement, severe road rash carries a real infection risk — the road surface contains bacteria, dirt, oil, and gravel that get embedded in the wound. Third-degree road rash can require multiple surgeries, skin grafts, and result in permanent scarring. The visible nature of the scarring matters in a claim, particularly when it affects the face, hands, or other exposed areas.

Fractures

Broken bones are among the most common motorcycle injuries. Patterns we see most often:

• Lower extremities — femur, tibia, and fibula fractures, often from the bike falling on the rider or impact with another vehicle
• Pelvis fractures — common in side-impact crashes, often requiring surgery and extended recovery
• Wrist and arm fractures — from instinctively bracing for the fall
• Clavicle fractures — extremely common when riders go over the handlebars
• Rib fractures — often associated with internal injuries and breathing complications
• Foot and ankle injuries — from crush mechanisms when the bike pins the rider

Many motorcycle fractures are open fractures (where the bone breaks through the skin) or comminuted (multiple fragments), which require surgical fixation with plates, screws, or rods. Hardware can stay in permanently, and many riders need follow-up surgeries for hardware removal or to address complications.

Internal Injuries

The blunt force of a motorcycle crash can damage internal organs without breaking the skin. We commonly see:

• Liver and spleen lacerations — these can cause life-threatening internal bleeding
• Pneumothorax (collapsed lung) — often associated with rib fractures
• Kidney damage
• Intestinal injuries

Internal injuries are particularly dangerous because they don’t always present immediately. A rider who walks away from a crash may not realize they’re bleeding internally until hours later. This is one of the most important reasons to get medical evaluation immediately after any motorcycle crash, even if you feel fine.

Burns

Burns from contact with hot motorcycle parts (the exhaust pipe is the most common source) can range from minor to requiring skin grafts. Burns also occur in crashes involving fuel leaks or fire.

Amputations and Crush Injuries

In severe crashes, riders can lose limbs or sustain crush injuries that require amputation. These are among the most life-altering injuries possible and result in the highest-value claims. Lifetime costs of prosthetics, ongoing medical care, home and vehicle modifications, and reduced earning capacity make these complex cases.

Soft Tissue Injuries

Even crashes that don’t produce dramatic visible injuries can cause significant soft tissue damage:

• Whiplash and neck strain — from rapid acceleration/deceleration
• Torn ligaments — knees, shoulders, and ankles are common
• Muscle tears
• Nerve damage — particularly in the brachial plexus (shoulder) from being thrown

Soft tissue injuries are often dismissed as “minor” by insurance adjusters even when they cause real, lasting pain. Proper documentation and consistent medical treatment are essential to establishing the seriousness of these injuries.

Eastern Oregon and Eastern Washington Riding Conditions That Cause Crashes

Riders in our region face conditions that don’t show up in national injury statistics. Cases we handle frequently involve:

• Cabbage Hill on I-84 — the steep grade and tight curves between Pendleton and La Grande are notorious for crashes, particularly when conditions deteriorate
• The Blue Mountains scenic routes — popular riding destinations that combine elevation changes, wildlife crossings, and limited cell coverage
• Highway 730 along the Columbia — exposed to crosswinds, dust, and inattentive drivers
• Rural intersections and highway crossings — where left-turning drivers fail to see oncoming motorcycles, the most common single cause of motorcycle crashes
• Blowing dust on I-82 and I-84 — sudden visibility drops that catch riders without warning
• Gravel and debris on rural roads — particularly on rural Eastern Oregon county roads where cleanup happens less frequently than on state highways
• Wildlife — deer and elk on roads through forested areas, particularly around dawn and dusk

When a crash happens in conditions like these, an out-of-state insurance adjuster handling the claim often doesn’t understand the contributing factors. That gap is something local representation can address.

How Injuries Affect a Motorcycle Claim’s Value

The injury determines the claim. The more serious the injury, the higher the case value — but the relationship isn’t always intuitive. A few things worth understanding:

Treatment that’s still ongoing is harder to value. Settling a case before a rider has reached “maximum medical improvement” — the point where recovery has plateaued — usually means accepting a settlement that doesn’t account for treatment that’s still needed. Brain injuries, spinal injuries, and complex fractures often take 12 to 24 months to fully understand.

Permanent impairment matters significantly. An injury that fully resolves is valued differently than one that leaves permanent scarring, range-of-motion loss, chronic pain, or cognitive deficit. Documentation from treating physicians on permanent impairment is critical.

Future medical costs add up fast. Future surgeries, ongoing physical therapy, mental health treatment, prescription medications, and assistive devices all factor in. Life-care planners build out these projections for serious cases.

Lost earning capacity often dwarfs medical bills. A rider who can’t return to their previous occupation may have a lost earning capacity claim worth substantially more than their medical expenses. This is particularly true for younger riders with decades of working life ahead.

The motorcycle bias is real. Insurance adjusters and juries sometimes apply an unspoken bias against riders — assumptions that the rider was speeding, riding recklessly, or assumed the risk by being on a motorcycle in the first place. Pushing back on these assumptions with evidence is part of the work in every case we handle.

Steps That Protect Your Claim After a Motorcycle Crash

If you’ve been hurt in a motorcycle accident, the things you do in the first days and weeks affect what your case is worth months later:

1. Get medical evaluation right away — even if you feel okay. Some serious injuries don’t present immediately.
2. Follow your treatment plan — gaps in treatment are used by insurance companies to argue your injuries weren’t serious
3. Document everything — photos of injuries as they progress, the bike, your gear, the scene
4. Don’t give a recorded statement to the at-fault driver’s insurance company without legal advice
5. Don’t accept the first offer — initial offers from insurance adjusters are routinely a fraction of what serious motorcycle injury claims are actually worth
6. Save the gear — your helmet, jacket, gloves, and boots can be evidence of impact severity
7. Investigate every source of insurance coverage — including your own uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage, which often becomes the most important source of compensation for serious injuries

Talk to a Motorcycle Accident Attorney

If you’ve been hurt in a motorcycle crash anywhere in Eastern Oregon or Eastern Washington, our team handles these cases regularly and understands what they take to win. The consultation is free, and you don’t pay anything unless we recover compensation for you.

We’ve also written more about motorcycle crash settlement examples and how to scare an insurance adjuster if you want to dig deeper before reaching out.

Contact Hess Injury Law to speak with a motorcycle accident attorney from our Walla Walla, Hermiston, or Pullman office.

Disclaimer: The content of this blog is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. It should not be relied upon as a substitute for professional legal counsel.