West Hollywood Motorcycle Accident Lawyer

The most common serious motorcycle collision pattern is a car turning left across an oncoming rider. Vehicle Code § 21801 requires a driver turning left to yield to oncoming traffic that is close enough to be a hazard. Drivers almost always say the same thing afterward: they never saw the motorcycle, or it 'came out of nowhere.'

That statement is useful, not damaging. A rider with the right of way who was visible to anyone looking is exactly what the yield requirement covers. Sight-line photographs taken from the driver's stopped position, and video from a business camera on the corner, are what turn an argument into a record.

Insurers frequently open by asserting the rider was splitting lanes and therefore at fault. That is a misstatement of the law. Lane splitting is not prohibited in California; § 21658.1 recognizes it and directs the CHP to issue educational guidelines. Whether a rider's speed and spacing were reasonable in the actual conditions is a fact question, not an automatic finding of fault.

Comparative fault means that even if a rider bears some share, it reduces the recovery proportionally rather than ending the claim. We answer the splitting narrative with scene measurements, traffic-flow evidence, and the driver's own duty to look before moving across a lane.

Laurel Canyon Boulevard and the Sunset Plaza approaches combine decreasing-radius curves, gravel washed onto the surface, and limited sightlines. When a defect in the roadway itself contributed — a pavement edge drop, a failed repair, a missing warning sign — the responsible entity may be the city, Los Angeles County, or the City of Los Angeles depending on the exact segment.

Those claims run on the six-month written government claim deadline (Government Code § 911.2), and the physical condition can be repaved before anyone documents it. Photographs and measurements taken in the first days matter more here than in almost any other case type.