A bus driver affiliated with a major university in Texas received a traffic citation for failing to yield to a motorcyclist. The end result was a motorcycle accident that sent the motorcyclist to the hospital. Thankfully, the motorcyclist is expected to survive, but the full extent of his injuries is not known.

Nevertheless, the motorcyclist is lucky to be alive. Buses are large vehicles that can do a lot of damage even to full-sized cars if involved in a collision. A motorcyclist that gets involved in an accident with a bus is likely to be significantly injured, even if he or she was wearing all the proper safety equipment.

Failure to yield, either at an intersection or otherwise, is a common cause for motorcycle accidents. For several reasons, drivers, including commercial drivers, may not be as attentive to motorcyclists as they should be. For instance, they may not adequately check their blind spots for motorcyclists, or they may just miss an oncoming motorcycle because it is so small. In other cases, a motorist misgauges how fast a motorcycle is traveling or what the motorcyclist can or will do to maneuver his or her bike.

While these are certainly accidents in the common sense of the word, all drivers, including commercial drivers of buses, need to be aware enough and careful enough to avoid causing a collision. In other words, in general it is not a motorcyclist’s fault is he gets hurt in an accident where a vehicle failed to yield the right-of-way of the motorcyclist, as motorcyclists have the same rights on the Texas roads as do other vehicles.

Houston residents who gets hurt in a motorcycle accident may have the option of filing a negligence claim against the responsible driver. In the case of a commercial driver, a claim against the responsible driver’s employer may also be a possibility.