Helmet Laws in Texas: What Every Motorcyclist Should Know About Liability

There is a lot of confusion about motorcycle helmet laws in Texas and how they affect motorcycle accident claims. When are helmets required? Who’s required to wear them? Does helmet use affect your ability to recover damages after an accident?

As accident attorneys, we’ve seen that the injuries riders suffer in motorcycle accidents are often so much more devastating than injuries in car accidents that it is even more essential to ensure that victims receive the full compensation they need to rebuild their lives after an accident. Many times, riders are injured so severely that we work with family members on their behalf as they focus on physical recovery.

If you or a loved one suffered injuries in a motorcycle accident, it is important to understand Texas helmet laws and how they impact liability.

Texas Motorcycle Helmet Laws

The primary statute dealing with the obligations of motorcycle riders is found in Section 661.003 of the Texas statutes. The law refers to a helmet as “protective headgear” and notes that helmets need to meet appropriate safety standards.

To comply with the law, motorcyclists must wear a helmet when they are riding on a public street or highway. This includes passengers and operators. However, there is a big exception to this requirement. A rider or passenger who is 21 years old or older is not required to wear a helmet if they either:

• Have completed an approved motorcycle training and safety course, or
• Have medical insurance coverage that will cover the cost of injuries suffered as a result of riding on a motorcycle

While police can stop riders to inspect the safety of a helmet, they are not permitted to stop riders without helmets solely to determine whether they have the required insurance or have taken an approved safety class.

Violation of the helmet requirement is considered a misdemeanor offense punishable by a fine between $10-$50. But this statute is a transportation law, not a civil liability law. The creation of liability in one area of law does not automatically translate to a violation in other areas of law. So it is important to see how courts view violations of helmet laws when assessing liability for motorcycle accident injuries.

Courts Can Consider the Lack of a Helmet in Injury Lawsuits

The good news is that if you’re in a motorcycle accident and you weren’t wearing a helmet, you are not automatically prevented from filing a personal injury lawsuit to recover compensation from those who were responsible for causing the accident. However, it is important to be aware that you might not recover as much compensation if the judge or jury believes that the lack of a helmet is partially to blame for the severity of your injuries.

In some states, such as Virginia, courts are not allowed to consider a motorcycle rider negligent just because they weren’t wearing a helmet. That is not true in Texas, however. If you were hurt riding a motorcycle and weren’t wearing a helmet, the insurance companies or defendant in a lawsuit can argue that you wouldn’t have been injured as badly (or at all) if you had been wearing a helmet. 

For that reason, it is important to work with an attorney who understands how helmet laws affect accident claims in Texas. For instance, at DeKeyzer Law, we know to be prepared with evidence to show why an accident still would have resulted in severe injuries even if the victim had been wearing a helmet so that we can promptly and effectively refute the assertions from insurance companies.

Negligence in Texas

To understand how the use or lack of a helmet could affect a motorcycle accident case in Texas, it’s helpful to look at the legal standards regarding negligence. When someone is held to be legally negligent, it means that they had a duty to do something, they didn’t do it, and that failure caused harm to another person. 

Someone found to be negligent can be required to pay compensation for the harm they’ve caused. When harm is just financial, then it’s easy to apply a remedy. For example, all drivers have a duty to look where they are going. If a negligent truck driver backed up without looking and crushed your brand-new motorcycle in a parking lot, the court would be likely to order the driver or trucking company to pay the costs necessary to buy another new motorcycle to replace what you’d lost.

When motorcycle accidents cause injuries, however, finding an adequate remedy is not as simple. No amount of money can erase pain or restore health. Most of the time, all a court can do is order the person who was negligent to pay money as a means to provide justice and cover the future needs of the victim and their family.

In all motorcycle accident cases, it is critical to have evidence to show how someone was negligent and how that negligence caused your injuries.

The Comparative Negligence Rule

Many times, an accident is caused by a combination of factors, and those factors may involve different people. A car crash could occur, for example, because one driver ran a stop sign and the other was driving too fast. Both drivers were operating negligently and their combined negligence caused the collision.

Sometimes, the person injured in the accident acted in a way that either contributed to the cause of the accident or that made their injuries worse. When that happens in Texas, the injured person can still file a lawsuit seeking damages from the others responsible for the accident as long as the injured person is not more than 50% at fault. This is officially set out in Section 33.001 of the Texas Code as the rule of “proportionate responsibility.” While an injured person who’s partially to blame for their injuries can recover damages, the amount they receive is reduced by a percentage equal to their share of responsibility.

So, in the case where a motorcycle rider was not wearing a helmet, if the judge or jury decided that the lack of a helmet was 10% of the cause of the rider’s injuries, then the rider’s compensation would be reduced by 10%. If the total damage award was $1,000,000, then it would decrease by 10% ($100,000) to $900,000.

Holland and Meagan DeKeyzer Know How to Fight for Maximum Damages After a Motorcycle Accident

Even when someone is severely injured or killed in a motorcycle accident, attorneys representing those responsible for causing the accident will still try to blame the victim and avoid paying compensation. We know that’s not right. At DeKeyzer Law, we stand up for victims and fight effectively to counter arguments regarding failure to wear a helmet so that our clients have the chance to receive the maximum compensation for their losses. For a free case evaluation and consultation to learn how we can help after a motorcycle accident, contact us online or call us at 713-904-4004 now.