Motorbike and tractor accidents on country roads

It’s a lethal combination – a small, hard to spot biker travelling on winding country roads, and a slow bulky tractor emerging from a concealed farm or field entrance.

It really is a recipe for disaster; injuries to bikers on country roads are common enough, and collisions with tractors can lead to very serious injuries.

If you as a biker are involved in a collision or an accident with a tractor on a country road, what are your rights and options for serious injury compensation?

Establishing fault

Generally speaking, the vehicle merging on to a road from a side road, driveway, or in this case a field, has to give way to any party already established on the road. As such, in terms of who has the duty of care here, it’s typically the tractor driver.

There are often signs around farmyards and fields warning of tractors or even specifically warning of tractors crossing or merging on to the highway, so biker must of course take care. That being said, so long as the biker is not speeding and is travelling safely for the conditions of the road and the weather, the tractor driver is likely to be found completely at fault.

Can the biker be at fault?

There are occasions the biker could be held either fully or partially at fault. Generally speaking, it’s probably unlikely that a biker will be found fully at fault where it’s a tractor merging from a side road, driveway, or a field. One occurrence where a biker may be held fully liable could be on the basis of speed where a tractor is already established on the country road. They’re slow and bulky vehicles, so coming around a blind bend or over the brow of a hill too fast may leave a biker with too little time to slow down and stop for a slow moving tractor on the highway.

You can’t blame the tractor for being slow. This is why the national speed limit of 60mph that’s commonly applied to country roads must never be seen as a “target” when it comes to winding country roads. If the bend or the brow leaves the road ahead blind, the biker should slow down to safely stop in time.

Speed

Even where a tractor pulls out from a side road, driveway, or a field, a biker may be held partially at fault if they’re found to be speeding. If the tractor driver considered the road was fully clear and pulls out safely, only to be hit by a speeding biker, you as the rider may have to accept some of the blame.

Speed, however, is hard to prove unless the accident was witnessed or captured on camera footage (which is actually very common these days!)

Accounting for the road conditions

Have you ever ridden over the peaks in the darker months where the blustery fog reduces visibility to less than 30ft ahead of you? You don’t want to be riding anywhere near 60mph in those kinds of conditions at all!

Wet roads and reduced visibility must be accounted for by bikers, or you may again end up with part of the blame laid on you. It won’t necessarily stop you from claiming, but you may be forced to accept some responsibility which can hamper the outcome of any case you have.

If you ride in accordance with the rules of the road, you shouldn’t have anything to worry about.

What happens if a biker is found partially to blame?

With motorbike accidents often resulting in serious injuries, insurers defending the tractor driver may be more tempted to try and defend or partially defend the claim. If they;re facing a large payout and the cost of expert legal fees, they’ll be tempted to try and argue that the rider should bear some of the blame because this can reduce the amount they have to pay out.

If a biker accepts 25% blame in a crash, they’ll be left with 25% less of their compensation payout. With serious biker injuries easily hitting the hundreds of thousands of pounds mark, insurers could stand to save themselves a small fortune by partially defending the case. If they have evidence of speeding or irresponsible riding that may have contributed toward the accident, they will probably use it against you.

How do you combat this?

Our best advice is to only ever instruct a specialist law firm to represent you for a case like this.  Non-specialist lawyers with little experience or lacking in resources may be tempted to just advise you to accept blame where you shouldn’t be doing; or accept a bigger portion of blame than you should.

We actually specialise in serious injury cases and biker compensation claims, so we’re confident our team can help you.

For free and friendly advice, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.