Are Harley Davidson Trikes More Likely To Cause Accidents Than Other Motorcycles?

Myrtle Beach Bike week is coming soon, and hopeful first-time attendees across the nation are trying to convince their families that motorcycles are safe.  If the fact that you have been riding a motorcycle for years is not evidence enough for your skeptical relatives, you can always tell them that the warm, sunny weather and level terrain in Myrtle Beach make for ideal motorcycle riding conditions.  If that doesn’t work, you can try the angle that your bike is one of the safest on the market.  Of course, if your chosen ride is a Harley Davidson trike, you might have your work cut out for you, since accidents involving a malfunction of the braking systems on these motorcycles have made news headlines in recent months.  If you have been injured in a motorcycle accident, whether the motorcycle has two wheels or three, contact a Columbia motorcycle accident lawyer.

The Harley Davidson Trike Lawsuits

Most people who have ridden a bicycle first learned to ride a tricycle when they were children.  Therefore, when Harley Davidson introduced three-wheeled motorcycles, many buyers thought that they would be safer than two-wheeled motorcycles.  One would expect the triangular placement of the wheels to give the motorcycle more stability than ordinary motorcycles, even a hefty bike like a Harley, tend to have. In their current form, though, Harley-Davidson trikes seem to be more prone to a glitch with their braking systems that can cause the trike to veer off the side of the road.

Harold Morris was riding a Harley Davidson trike in Pennsylvania in June 2020, when the trike ran off the road, throwing him and his girlfriend Pamela SinClair off of the trike.  SinClair died, and Morris suffered multiple broken bones and spent more than a month in the hospital.  When he had been riding his trike in Florida the previous year, it also unexpectedly veered to the left, but Morris was able to avoid injury.

The problem that caused Morris’ accidents and similar ones is that the brakes on the two rear wheels activate at slightly different times, so the trike veers to the side when the rider brakes.  IN all the product liability lawsuits filed against Harley Davidson for dangerous trikes, the details are the same: the rider was traveling at a safe speed, and weather conditions were not hazardous.  The trike brake malfunction accidents happened in states with very different terrain from each other: Florida, Oklahoma, West Virginia, Oregon, and Oklahoma.  News sources have not reported any product liability lawsuits filed against Harley Davidson in South Carolina related to trike malfunctions.

Let Us Help You Today

The motorcycle accident lawyers at the Stanley Law Group can help you seek damages in a product liability lawsuit if you were injured in a motorcycle accident caused by a design flaw or manufacturer’s defect in your bike.  Contact The Stanley Law Group in Columbia, South Carolina or call (803)799-4700 for a free initial consultation.

Sources

nbcnewyork.com/investigations/i-team-lawsuits-blame-harley-davidson-trikes-for-death-injuries/3277483/