After a motorcycle accident, it is very common for the driver of a car that caused that accident to say that they did not see the motorcycle. Perhaps they turned left in front of the bike, for example. The motorcyclist had the right of way, and the driver made an unsafe left turn. But the driver of that car may say that they thought the way was clear and they never saw the motorcycle in the first place.
Naturally, there are multiple reasons why this happens. For instance, distracted driving is very common. If a driver was looking down at their phone or if their attention was divided between multiple tasks, they may not have noticed the motorcycle approaching. Drivers who are relatively inattentive, perhaps trying to drive with their peripheral vision while they do other things in the vehicle, have a greater likelihood of causing a crash.
Inattentional blindness
A similar issue, however, is known as inattentional blindness. It has to do with cognitive processing and how the brain takes in the information being presented to it.
Essentially, there is a lot of information for the brain to work through while someone is undertaking the complex task of driving a car. In order to handle all of this information at once, the brain begins to sort it by order of importance.
What this means is that drivers often see the things that they expect or the things that they are focused on. A driver may look to see if there are other cars and trucks approaching, but they do not expect to see a motorcycle. It is already a small vehicle, and it is easy for their brain to simply filter it out.
Because they do not take enough time to pause and really pay attention to their surroundings, perhaps just quickly glancing at traffic, the motorcycle never registers, and the driver feels like they did not “see” it, even though they looked directly at it.
Seeking compensation
Motorcycle accidents often lead to severe injuries. If you have been involved in a crash caused by another negligent driver, you need to know how to seek financial compensation.