Road Rash Injuries from Motorcycle Accidents in Winter Haven

Road rash from a motorcycle accident is a common injury. This is essentially an abrasion injury that motorcyclists can suffer when they are tossed off their bikes and go tumbling along the road. Any exposed skin could be damaged, requiring surgery and extensive medical treatment.

JustCallMoe has represented many motorcyclists hurt in all sorts of accidents. Motorcycle road rash warrants significant compensation for medical care, but also for pain and suffering and related emotional distress. Some people are permanently disfigured from this type of injury. Contact us today to speak with a Winter Haven motorcycle accident lawyer.

Road Rash Treatment

Road rash is a type of friction burn. A person’s skin can burn and scrape when it rubs against a hard surface, especially at high speeds. Motorcyclists often suffer road rash on any exposed areas of the body:

• Legs
• Arms
• Hands
• Face

In the most severe situations, every layer of skin is peeled back, exposing the underlying fat, nerves, bone, and muscles. In less serious cases, a motorcyclist’s skin will be “stippled” with grains of dirt, and some skin is broken and bleeding.

Treatment will focus on cleaning the wound and ensuring that the skin can heal properly without scarring. In severe cases, a patient might need skin grafts to close a large wound. This happens often when flaps of skin are torn clear of the damaged limb.

Three Complications from Road Rash

There are many serious complications from road rash from a motorcycle accident. Let’s look at three of the most common:

1. Infection. The risk of infection is high. Dirt and debris can become embedded in the wound, leading to possible infection. Some people will also develop staph infection whenever the skin is broken. Some of the most common infections include cellulitis, which is a bacterial infection causing red and swollen skin.

You should immediately begin treatment with antibiotics to control the infection. Failure to start early could result in sepsis and even septic shock, which is a potentially fatal condition.

2. Scarring. Another risk of road rash from motorcycle wrecks is substantial scarring or disfigurement. A person might even develop keloids, which are an overgrowth of scar tissue. The body produces too much collagen, leading to thick, purplish scars.

Road rash on the face is likely to cause intense emotional distress. Some motorcyclists don’t wear a helmet with a face shield, so their face ends up dragging along the asphalt after a wreck.

3. Limited mobility. Road rash can severely limit a person’s mobility when a joint is affected. Any scarring will limit the range of motion, possibly making it harder for a person to walk, bend their knee, or extend their arm. Many road rash victims need physical therapy and other rehabilitation to help them overcome these limitations. You might even need additional surgeries to loosen the skin.

At JustCallMoe, we strive to obtain compensation for all the complications that develop after an accident. Our firm can seek compensation for pain and suffering, along with mental distress.

How Much Compensation Can You Receive?

Too many people think road rash is a minor injury that only requires a sterile bandage and some ointment. And, in rare cases, a person might suffer a small patch of road rash but otherwise be okay.

However, most road rash requires extensive medical treatment and downtime to heal. This is a serious injury.

Our firm will seek various damages for motorcycle road rash, including:

• Damage to your motorcycle, which needs to be fixed or possibly replaced.
• Medical bills, including the cost of prescription medication, antibiotics, and physical therapy.
• Lost wages or income, if you must miss work to recover from pain.
• Pain and suffering, including compensation for bodily pain.
• Mental anguish or emotional distress, for the mental effects of the accident.

Each case is different, so it is hard to summarize how much you can receive for road rash from a motorcycle accident. Contact our firm today to schedule an individualized consultation. We can review your medical bills and other evidence to estimate the full value of your claim.

Seeking Compensation

Our firm can help motorcyclists hold any party accountable if they are responsible for the accident.

Some defendants include:

• Negligent motorists who struck you or forced you off the road;
• Property owners if a defect in a parking lot or parking garage led to an accident;
• Government entities if the road is defective and contributed to a wreck;
• Motorcycle manufacturers where a defect on the motorcycle causes an accident.

Reach out to a law firm quickly and make sure not to fix your motorcycle until a personal injury lawyer has inspected it. Sometimes manufacturing or design defects are to blame for an accident, and we want proof to sue when seeking a financial settlement for road rash.

Preventing Road Rash

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. And that is certainly true of road rash. Probably the easiest way to avoid the most severe forms of road rash is to wear long-sleeved shirts and pants while out riding. This way, the clothing will rub against the asphalt if you fall off and go skidding along the road. Although you might still get a friction burn, it will probably be less serious.

Of course, Winter Haven summers get very hot, and few people want to wear heavy pants. Avoiding an accident is the next best way to avoid any type of injury, including road rash.

Contact Our Winter Haven Motorcycle Accident Lawyer Today

Road rash is a painful injury that can leave many motorcyclists sidelined for months, unable to get back on their bikes or even back to work. You have important legal rights when someone else is to blame for your accident. We highly recommend reaching out to JustCallMoe to speak with our Winter Haven motorcycle accident lawyer in a free consultation. We have won millions for people injured in some of the most common personal injury accidents, and we are eager to help you, too.