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New York Motorcycle Accident Lawyer

Reviewed by John F. Harwick, Managing Partner, Hacker Murphy LLP. Admitted in New York and in the U.S. District Courts for the Northern, Eastern, Western, and Southern Districts of New York. Last reviewed September 2026.

New York excludes motorcycles from its no-fault insurance system. Insurance Law § 5102(f) states the definition of a covered motor vehicle “shall not include … a motorcycle.” That single exclusion changes everything about a rider’s claim: no no-fault benefits to fall back on, and no serious injury threshold standing between you and a lawsuit.

Hacker Murphy represents injured riders across New York State from offices in Albany, Troy, Schenectady, and Saratoga Springs. Call 518-274-5820 for a free consultation.

Motorcyclists Are Not Covered by New York No-Fault Insurance

This is the most important thing a New York rider can know, and most riders learn it the worst possible way. Insurance Law § 5102(f) defines “motor vehicle” for no-fault purposes and then states plainly that it “shall not include any motor vehicle not required to carry financial security pursuant to article six, eight or forty-eight-A of the vehicle and traffic law or a motorcycle.”

Riders sit outside the system. That cuts in two directions at once.

What the exclusion costs you

There is no automatic pool of money waiting after a motorcycle crash. A driver in a car gets up to fifty thousand dollars in basic economic loss from their own insurer within weeks, no questions about fault. A rider gets nothing from that system. Your medical bills go to your health insurer, and any deductibles, copays, and out-of-network gaps come out of your pocket while the case is pending.

Health insurers that pay those bills typically assert a lien against your recovery. Handling that lien is part of the case, not an afterthought, and it is one of the reasons a rider’s net recovery can differ sharply from the headline settlement number.

What the exclusion gives you

Here is the part most riders never hear. Because motorcycles are outside Article 51, the serious injury threshold does not apply to you.

A car occupant in New York cannot sue for pain and suffering unless the injury fits one of eight statutory categories. A rider faces no such gate. You can bring an ordinary negligence claim against the at-fault driver from day one, for the full range of damages, without first proving your injury qualifies. The threshold motions that consume months of a car accident case simply are not available against you.

Our firm wrote a fuller explanation of the exclusion in does New York no-fault insurance apply to motorcycle crashes.

What the Exclusion Means for Your Medical Bills

The practical answer is that the money has to come from somewhere other than no-fault, and the sources are worth identifying in the first week.

  • Your health insurance usually pays the treatment, subject to a lien on any recovery.
  • The at-fault driver’s liability policy is the primary target. New York’s minimum bodily injury coverage is $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident, which a serious motorcycle injury exhausts almost immediately.
  • Your own motorcycle policy may carry supplementary uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, and some policies add optional medical payments coverage. Pull your declarations page and read it, because what you bought matters more here than it would in a car case.
  • Other responsible parties, including a municipality that let a road defect persist, or a commercial vehicle’s insurer.

Because the at-fault driver’s minimum policy is so often inadequate, finding every available layer of coverage is usually the difference between a nominal recovery and a real one.

Deadlines in a New York Motorcycle Accident Claim

What Deadline Source
Accident report to the DMV (form MV-104A) 10 days VTL § 605
Lawsuit against the at-fault driver 3 years from the crash CPLR § 214(5)
Wrongful death claim 2 years from the date of death EPTL § 5-4.1
Notice of claim against a municipality or public entity Generally 90 days General Municipal Law § 50-e

Riders skip the 30-day no-fault notice that car occupants must file, because there is no no-fault claim to notice. That is one deadline you do not have to worry about.

The DMV report still applies. Vehicle and Traffic Law § 605 requires a report within ten days after an accident if damage to any one person’s property exceeds $1,000, or if the accident results in personal injury or death.

The lawsuit deadline is three years under CPLR § 214(5). If a government vehicle or a dangerous road condition is involved, the 90-day notice of claim comes first and compresses everything.

Why Motorcycle Crashes Happen

The single most common pattern is a driver turning left across a rider’s path, usually followed by some version of “I never saw the motorcycle.” Other recurring causes include unsafe lane changes into a rider’s position, following too closely, doors opened into traffic, and drivers pulling out of driveways and side streets without looking twice.

Road conditions matter far more to a rider than to a driver. A pothole, a steel plate, loose gravel, a poorly marked construction zone, or an uneven pavement seam that a car absorbs without noticing can put a motorcycle down. Those facts can support a claim against the municipality or contractor responsible for the roadway, which is exactly the kind of claim that carries a 90-day notice deadline.

Fighting the Bias Against Riders

Insurers work the assumption that the rider was speeding, weaving, or reckless. Adjusters raise it early, and jurors sometimes arrive with the same instinct. The data does not support it.

The Institute for Traffic Safety Management and Research, using New York State DMV crash data and published in December 2024, found that 68 percent of New York motorcycle crashes in 2023 involved more than one vehicle, against 32 percent that were single-vehicle. In other words, roughly two out of three motorcycle crashes in this state involve somebody else. The same data set puts alcohol involvement among motorcycle operators at 3 percent, against 2 percent for other drivers, a gap far narrower than the stereotype assumes.

Countering that bias is active work: scene photographs, sight-line analysis, event data from the other vehicle, and sometimes an accident reconstruction expert to establish who could have seen what and when.

New York Motorcycle Laws That Come Up in Almost Every Case

Defense lawyers look for a statutory violation by the rider, because it gives them a comparative fault argument. Four provisions surface repeatedly.

Helmets are mandatory. VTL § 381(6) makes it unlawful “for any person to operate or ride upon a motorcycle unless he wears a protective helmet.” The requirement covers passengers, not only operators.

Eye protection is also mandatory, and almost nobody knows it. VTL § 381(7) makes it unlawful “for any person to operate a motorcycle unless he wears goggles or a face shield.”

Lane splitting is illegal in New York. VTL § 1252(c) states that “no person shall operate a motorcycle between lanes of traffic or between adjacent lines or rows of vehicles.” Riders coming from states where the practice is legal are frequently surprised by this.

Passing in the same lane is illegal too. VTL § 1252(b) provides that “the operator of a motorcycle shall not overtake and pass in the same lane occupied by the vehicle being overtaken.”

None of these automatically ends a claim. Each one is a fact the defense will use, and each one is better addressed by your own lawyer early than raised by theirs at a deposition.

Does Not Wearing a Helmet Ruin My Claim?

Because New York’s no-fault law excludes motorcycles, the 2026 fault cutoff that now applies to car accident claims likely does not apply to riders. If that holds, a rider’s damages are reduced by their share of fault but are not cut off at 51 percent. No New York court has ruled on this yet, so fault allocation is worth reviewing with an attorney early.

The defense will also argue that a missing helmet made a head injury worse, which is a separate argument about damages rather than about who caused the crash. It is a fight about proportion, not about whether you have a case.

What Is My New York Motorcycle Accident Case Worth?

There is no average worth quoting. New York does not publish settlement data, and a figure that blends a broken collarbone with a spinal cord injury tells you nothing. What drives a rider’s case specifically:

  • The at-fault driver’s policy limits, which are often the practical ceiling. This is the single biggest variable in motorcycle cases because injuries tend to be severe and minimum policies are small.
  • Your own SUM coverage, which can add a second layer when the at-fault policy runs out.
  • The severity and permanence of the injury, supported by treating physician opinion.
  • Health insurance liens, which reduce net recovery and have to be negotiated.
  • Your percentage of fault under CPLR § 1411.
  • Lost income and future earning capacity, with no no-fault wage benefit to offset the gap.

Notably, what does not drive value is the serious injury threshold, because it does not apply to you. That removes a hurdle that shapes every car accident case in this state.

Any lawyer who quotes a number before reviewing your records and the available policy limits is guessing.

What to Do After a Motorcycle Crash in New York

  1. Get medical attention the same day, even if you feel able to walk away. Adrenaline hides injuries and a treatment gap is the first thing the defense will point at.
  2. Report the crash to the DMV within ten days using form MV-104A where property damage exceeds one thousand dollars, or if anyone was injured or killed.
  3. Photograph the scene before anything moves, including sight lines from the other driver’s position, road surface, debris, and skid marks.
  4. Get witness names and numbers. In a left-turn case, an independent witness is often the whole case.
  5. Preserve your gear. Do not clean, repair, or discard the helmet, jacket, or bike. Damage patterns are evidence of impact forces.
  6. Notify your own insurer and ask specifically about supplementary uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage.
  7. Do not give the other driver’s insurer a recorded statement. Rider-bias questions start early and are designed to produce a quotable admission.

Injuries We Handle

Riders absorb crash forces that a car’s frame would otherwise take. The injuries we see most often include:

Where New York Motorcycle Cases Are Filed

A motorcycle accident lawsuit is typically filed in the Supreme Court of the county where the injury happened or where the plaintiff resides. Supreme Court is New York’s trial court of general jurisdiction, not its highest court, which trips people up. The state’s highest court is the Court of Appeals.

Our four offices sit in Albany, Rensselaer, Schenectady, and Saratoga counties, and we handle claims across the state.

Motorcycle Crashes Across New York State

New York motorcycle crash numbers are substantial and the injury share is disproportionate. Using DMV crash data, the Institute for Traffic Safety Management and Research reported in December 2024 that New York recorded 4,337 personal injury motorcycle crashes and 188 fatal motorcycle crashes in 2023, for 4,525 fatal and personal injury crashes combined. There were 187 motorcyclist fatalities that year out of 1,104 total crash deaths statewide.

More recently, the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles reported on December 23, 2025 that motorcycle fatalities “dropped from 157 in 2024 to 134 in 2025” across January through October, part of a statewide decline concentrated upstate.

Fewer deaths does not mean fewer serious claims. It means more riders are surviving crashes with the brain injuries, spinal injuries, and permanent limitations that define the rest of their lives.

Our 4 offices serve these parts of the Capital Region:

A full list is on our areas we serve page.

Frequently Asked Questions About New York Motorcycle Accident Claims

Does New York no-fault insurance cover motorcycle accidents?

No. Insurance Law § 5102(f) expressly excludes motorcycles from the definition of a covered motor vehicle. Riders receive no no-fault medical or wage benefits. The upside is that the serious injury threshold does not apply either, so a rider can sue the at-fault driver directly for all damages.

Do I have to meet the serious injury threshold to sue?

No. The threshold in Insurance Law § 5102(d) applies only to claims between covered persons under the no-fault system. Because motorcycles sit outside that system, a rider brings an ordinary negligence claim without first proving the injury fits one of the eight statutory categories.

How much are most motorcycle accident settlements in New York?

There is no meaningful average. Value turns on the at-fault driver’s policy limits, your own underinsured motorist coverage, injury severity and permanence, health insurance liens, and your share of fault. In motorcycle cases the available insurance is usually the binding constraint, not the injury.

Should I hire a lawyer for a motorcycle accident?

Motorcycle claims carry problems car claims do not: no no-fault safety net, health liens reducing net recovery, minimum liability policies that run out fast, and a bias that the rider was reckless. Each of those is handled better early than late, and the consultation costs nothing.

Who pays my medical bills if there is no no-fault?

Your health insurance usually pays the treatment and then asserts a lien against any recovery. The at-fault driver’s liability policy is the primary target, and your own supplementary uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage can add a second layer when that policy is exhausted.

Will not wearing a helmet stop me from recovering?

Because New York’s no-fault law excludes motorcycles, the 2026 fault cutoff that now applies to car accident claims likely does not apply to riders. If that holds, a rider’s damages are reduced by their share of fault but are not cut off at 51 percent. No New York court has ruled on this yet, so fault allocation is worth reviewing with an attorney early.
The defense will argue a missing helmet worsened a head injury, which is an argument about damages rather than about who caused the crash.

Is lane splitting legal in New York?

No. VTL § 1252(c) states that no person shall operate a motorcycle between lanes of traffic or between adjacent lines or rows of vehicles. VTL § 1252(b) separately bars passing another vehicle within the same lane. Riders from states where lane splitting is permitted are often unaware of this.

How long do I have to file a motorcycle accident lawsuit in New York?

Three years from the date of the crash under CPLR § 214(5). A wrongful death claim runs two years from the date of death. If a municipality or public entity is involved, a notice of claim is generally required within 90 days.

What if the driver who hit me had almost no insurance?

New York’s minimum bodily injury coverage is $25,000 per person, which a serious motorcycle injury exhausts immediately. Your own supplementary uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage is then the next source. Check your declarations page, because the limits you purchased directly cap this second layer.

What does a motorcycle accident lawyer cost?

Hacker Murphy handles motorcycle accident cases on a contingency fee. There is no fee unless there is a recovery, and the consultation is free. Fee terms are set out in a written retainer agreement before any work begins.

Talk to a New York Motorcycle Accident Lawyer

Motorcycle cases turn on evidence that disappears fast: scene conditions, sight lines, witness memory, and the physical damage to your gear and your bike. The insurer’s investigator is working on that evidence from day one, and the sooner someone is working it for you, the better your position.

Call 518-274-5820 or use our contact form. Consultations are free and we handle motorcycle accident cases on a contingency fee basis.

Hacker Murphy LLP

  • Troy: 64 2nd Street, Suite 101, Troy, NY 12180
  • Albany: 22 Corporate Woods Blvd., Suite 404, Albany, NY 12211
  • Schenectady: 670 Franklin Street, Suite 200, Schenectady, NY 12305
  • Saratoga Springs: 511 Broadway, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866

Phone: 518-274-5820

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