Pennsylvania Motorcycle Helmet Law: What It Means for Your Injury Claim

Can you still file a claim if you were not wearing a helmet?

Yes. Pennsylvania's helmet statute is a safety rule, not a bar to recovery, and nothing in it takes away a rider's right to sue a driver who caused the crash (75 Pa.C.S. § 3525). What the missing helmet can do is give the insurer an argument that a head or face injury would have been less severe, which is a fight about damages that requires medical evidence.

Many riders on Township Line Road, Baltimore Pike or the Blue Route ride legally without a helmet. Others were required to wear one and did not. The analysis differs, so start with which group you were in.

Who has to wear a helmet in Pennsylvania

The general rule is that no one may operate or ride on a motorcycle without protective headgear meeting PennDOT's standards (75 Pa.C.S. § 3525(a)). The statute then exempts:

• A rider 21 or older who has been licensed to operate a motorcycle for at least two full calendar years.
• A rider 21 or older who completed a motorcycle rider safety course approved by PennDOT or the Motorcycle Safety Foundation.
• A passenger 21 or older riding with an operator who is exempt.
• The operator or occupants of a three-wheeled motorcycle with an enclosed cab.

Eye protection is required for almost everyone

The age and experience exemptions apply only to helmets. Every operator and passenger must wear an eye-protective device of a type PennDOT approves, with the only exception for a three-wheeled motorcycle with an enclosed cab (75 Pa.C.S. § 3525(b)). If you were wearing a helmet with a face shield, glasses or goggles, tell your lawyer, because an insurer may raise eye protection when the crash involved debris or glare.

How insurers use the helmet argument

An adjuster who learns you had no helmet will often suggest your claim is worth less. That position has real limits:

• It says nothing about who caused the crash. A driver who turned left across your path is at fault whether or not you wore a helmet.
• It has no bearing on injuries below the neck. Broken legs, a fractured pelvis, shoulder injuries and road rash would have happened anyway.
• It needs proof. To reduce damages for a head injury, the defense has to show through medical or engineering evidence that a helmet would have prevented or reduced that injury.
• For a rider who was legally exempt, there was no violation of the helmet statute at all.

When you were required to wear one and did not

A rider under 21, or one who had neither two full calendar years of licensure nor an approved safety course, was required to wear a helmet. Expect the insurer to call that a violation of law and to push hard on the head injury. It still does not make you responsible for the other driver's mistake. How much weight a court gives the violation depends on the facts, the medical proof and how the judge instructs the jury, so get advice before accepting any number built on it.

Pennsylvania's comparative negligence statute reduces a recovery by the injured person's share of fault and bars it only when that share is greater than the defendants' combined fault (42 Pa.C.S. § 7102).

Protect the evidence

If you wore a helmet, keep it exactly as it is, with its labels. PennDOT approves helmets and publishes lists of approved headgear (75 Pa.C.S. § 3525(c)), and damage to the shell and liner shows how hard your head struck. If you did not wear one, write down your license history and any safety course you completed, since those facts decide whether you were exempt. Keep your eye protection too.

Warren I. Siegel, Esq., a Pennsylvania attorney since 1992, represents injured riders from our office at 8000 West Chester Pike in Upper Darby. Our fee is 100% contingency: no attorney fee unless we recover, all case costs advanced by the firm and repaid only from a recovery. Most injury suits must be filed within 2 years (42 Pa.C.S. § 5524). Call (267) 412-4601 or send the free case review form.