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Sacramento Motorcycle Accident Leaves Passenger With Major Brain Injury, Part 2 of 3

The following blog entry is written to illustrate how a brain injury lawsuit could develop and resolve. Reviewing this summary should help potential plaintiffs and clients better understand how parties in personal injury cases present such issues to the court.

(Please also note: the names and locations of all parties have been changed to protect the confidentiality of the participants in this brain injury lawsuit and its proceedings.)

Plaintiffs claimed that the accident was the result of misrepresentations made by both the dealer who sold them the motorcycle and the manufacturer of the motorcycle.

Plaintiffs claimed negligent misrepresentation against defendant Harley of Sacramento and its employee Temple and claimed strict products liability against defendants Harley-Davidson and Harley of Sacramento based on theories of a design defect and failure to warn related to the braking systems and indicator lights of the motorcycle. Even though plaintiffs’ motorcycle did not have ABS brakes, Harley-Davidson designed the non-ABS-equipped motorcycle with an ABS icon on the tachometer as if the motorcycle had ABS installed on it. Additionally, they alleged, Harley-Davidson intentionally designed its ABS-equipped motorcycles so that the ABS components were concealed.

Plaintiffs claimed that had their motorcycle been equipped with ABS brakes as they reasonably believed based on the representations of the dealer and the appearance of the motorcycle, which indicated to them that their motorcycle had ABS brakes, either the accident would not have occurred or Janice Welming’s injuries would not have been as severe. Plaintiffs also claimed that the accident would have been avoided had defendants warned them that their motorcycle was not equipped with ABS brakes because Welming would have operated the brakes differently.

For more information you are welcome to contact Sacramento personal injury lawyer, Moseley Collins.

Defendants contended that after a CalTrans sign warned of upcoming traffic, Welming decided to try to cross three lanes of traffic at freeway speeds and exit the freeway. While doing so, he looked in his side-view mirror and stopped paying attention to traffic conditions in front of him. By Welming’s own estimate, he took his eyes off the road in front of him for a full 10-15 seconds.

For more information you are welcome to contact Sacramento personal injury lawyer, Moseley Collins.