A motorcycle claim starts with the rider being blamed. Not investigated, blamed: by the other driver at the scene, then by their insurer, usually before anyone has looked at where the vehicles actually ended up. Speed is assumed. Lane splitting is assumed. Sometimes both are asserted about a crash where neither happened.
The lane splitting assumption is the one worth answering first, because the Vehicle Code does not prohibit it. Section 21658.1 defines lane splitting as riding “between rows of stopped or moving vehicles in the same lane”, and then authorizes the California Highway Patrol to develop educational guidelines about it. That is the whole section. It creates a definition and a guidance power. It does not make the act unlawful, and “he was lane splitting” is therefore a description of what you were doing rather than a finding that you caused anything.
Culver Legal has recovered $200 Million and counting for injured people in California. We work on contingency, we advance the costs of the case, and there is no fee unless we win. If there is no recovery, you are not charged those costs either. Call (310) 600-7881 at any hour, including tonight.
Is Lane Splitting Legal in California?
It is not prohibited, which is not quite the same sentence and the difference matters.
California is the only state that has legislated on this at all. Vehicle Code 21658.1 was added to define the practice and to let the CHP publish guidelines on doing it safely. No section makes it an infraction. So a rider who was lane splitting has not, by that fact, broken any law.
What remains available to the other side is ordinary negligence. Riding between lanes at a speed that was unsafe for the conditions can still be argued as careless, in the same way that any driving can. That is an argument about the specific facts, and it has to be proved rather than assumed from the word.
Where it genuinely cuts both ways, California reduces rather than bars. If a claim is worth $500,000 and a rider is found 20 percent responsible, the recovery is $400,000. Being partly at fault is not the end of a motorcycle case and it is routinely presented as though it were.
What the Bakersfield Data Says About Riders
The California Office of Traffic Safety publishes crash rankings for every city, drawn from statewide collision data, and Bakersfield is measured against the 15 California cities with populations over 250,000. In these tables a rank of 1 is the worst.
| Year | Motorcyclists killed or injured | Rank of 15 similar cities |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 103 | 6 of 15 |
| 2021 | 84 | 10 of 15 |
| 2022 | 67 | 12 of 15 |
| 2023 | 103 | 9 of 15 |
Rider injuries fell for two years and then returned to their 2020 level in 2023, a 54 percent rise in a single year.
One number next to it is worth knowing, because it describes what riders are sharing the road with. In the same year, 340 people were killed or injured in Bakersfield crashes involving alcohol, ranking the city 3rd of 15, and among drivers under 21 who had been drinking Bakersfield ranked 1st of 15, meaning worst in the group.
Has someone already blamed you for lane splitting?
No section of the Vehicle Code prohibits it. Being told otherwise is not the same as it being true.
Case Results
- $2,250,000Motorcycle Accident
- $3,550,000Personal Injury
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Every case turns on its own facts.
The Injuries, and Why They Are Valued Differently
A rider has no cage, no airbag and no crumple zone, so the same impact that dents a car produces orthopedic injuries, road rash and head trauma. Two consequences follow for a claim.
The medical picture takes longer to settle, because fractures needing hardware, skin grafts and revision surgery are staged over months or years. An offer made while treatment is unfinished is priced on an incomplete record by definition.
Head injuries are under-recorded even in helmeted riders. A normal scan in the emergency room answers the emergency question rather than every question, which is why a brain injury claim frequently begins from a record saying nothing was wrong. Where a crash is fatal, California restricts who may bring a wrongful death claim and how long they have.
If the vehicle that hit you was commercial, the case changes shape, because the carrier holds records that expire on a federal schedule rather than a state one. That makes it a commercial vehicle claim. If a public vehicle or the roadway was involved on Highway 99, Interstate 5 or State Route 58, the deadline shortens, the same way it does for a claim against a public bus operator.
How Long Do I Have to File?
Two years from the date of injury, under Code of Civil Procedure 335.1.
Six months to present a written claim to a public entity, under Government Code 911.2, before any lawsuit is possible. That covers a city or county vehicle and a claim about the road surface itself, which on a motorcycle is a more common cause than it is in a car.
Injured children. Code of Civil Procedure 352 pauses the ordinary limitation period while an injured person is under 18. The six-month government claim rule is not paused in the same way.
Did the report get your lane position wrong?
Where the bike came to rest and where the debris fell answer it. Both disappear within days.
Who Investigated It, and How Do I Get the Report?
Answer this before you go looking, because riders end up at the wrong counter more often than drivers do. A collision on Highway 99, Interstate 5 or State Route 58 is normally investigated by the California Highway Patrol. A collision on a city street inside Bakersfield is normally the police department’s. Riders cover both in a single trip, so the answer is about where it happened rather than about who you are.
City street. The report comes from the Bakersfield Police Department Records Unit at 1601 Truxtun Avenue, weekdays 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., flat $7, traffic report line (661) 326-3883. Usually five to seven business days, but the department says injury and fatal collision investigations take several days to weeks, and a motorcycle crash with injuries is in that group. The officers who investigated it work out of the Traffic Section at 1301 Buena Vista Road, which is a different address from the counter.
Freeway. The report is the Highway Patrol’s and comes from the CHP office covering the location, not from the city.
Read it when it arrives, and do not treat it as the last word. A report reflects what the investigating officer concluded from a scene the rider was usually not conscious for. Where the narrative assumes speed or assumes lane splitting, that assumption is contestable, and the physical evidence, the vehicle damage and any camera footage are what contest it. Footage is normally overwritten within days, which is the reason not to wait for the report before somebody starts looking.
Where Will the Case Be Heard, and Where Will I Be Treated?
A motorcycle injury claim seeking more than $35,000 is an unlimited civil case, filed at the Metro Justice Building, 1215 Truxtun Avenue and heard in Kern County before a Kern County jury. Jury attitudes to riders are a real feature of these cases rather than a cliche, and it is one more reason the case wants to rest on physical evidence rather than on impressions.
The most serious injuries in the county go to Kern Medical, 1700 Mount Vernon Avenue, a Level II trauma center designated in 2001 and re-verified by the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma. Where the ambulance took you determines who holds the imaging and the trauma activation record, and for a rider those records usually document injuries nobody described out loud on the day.
Why Bakersfield Clients Choose Culver Legal
We come to you. If you are in the hospital, at home and unable to drive, or a long way out in the county, we will meet you where you are. A rider recovering from orthopedic surgery should not have to travel to start a claim.
Our team speaks Spanish, Farsi, Filipino, Hindi, Mandarin and Korean. Explaining your own accident in your own words is not a convenience.
The economics are simple. The firm works on contingency and advances the costs of the case, so there is nothing to pay up front and no fee unless we win. We advance the case costs, and if there is no recovery you are not charged those costs either. Culver Legal has recovered $200 Million and counting, and answers the phone 24 hours a day.
Bakersfield Motorcycle Accident FAQs
Was I breaking the law by lane splitting?
No section of the California Vehicle Code prohibits it. Section 21658.1 defines lane splitting and authorizes the CHP to publish educational guidelines about it, and that is the extent of the legislation. The other side can still argue that how you rode in the circumstances was careless, but that is an argument about your specific riding rather than about the practice itself.
The other driver says they never saw me. Does that help them?
Not by itself. A driver’s duty includes looking. “I did not see the motorcycle” describes a failure to keep a proper lookout at least as easily as it excuses one, and it is frequently the most useful admission in the file.
I was not wearing all my protective gear. Does that end my claim?
No. California reduces recovery in proportion to fault rather than barring it, so any argument of that kind changes a percentage rather than the existence of the claim. Helmet use is separately required by law, and the effect of not wearing one is confined to the injuries it would have prevented rather than applied to the whole case.
The insurer offered a settlement while I am still having surgery. Should I take it?
An offer made mid-treatment is priced on an unfinished medical record, which on a motorcycle case is where most of the value still is. Staged orthopedic surgery and revision work often continue for a year or more. Having the offer reviewed costs nothing.
I am undocumented. Can I bring a claim without putting myself at risk?
Yes, and the protection is stronger than most people expect. Under Evidence Code 351.2, added by AB 2159, evidence of a person’s immigration status is not admissible in a civil action for personal injury or wrongful death, and discovery into it is not permitted either.
Who is usually at fault in a motorcycle accident?
There is no usually, and the assumption that there is causes most of the damage in these claims. Fault is decided on the facts of the individual collision, and in a large share of them the other driver turned across the rider’s path or changed lanes into it. What is true is that riders start from a worse position than the evidence supports: speed gets assumed, lane splitting gets assumed, and the rider is often the only person at the scene unable to give an account. None of that is a finding of fault. California reduces a recovery in proportion to fault rather than barring it, so even a rider who did something wrong still has a claim, and the first job is usually to test the assumptions rather than accept them.
Contact a Culver Legal Bakersfield Motorcycle Accident Lawyer
The physical evidence in a motorcycle case is the part that answers the blame, and it is also the part that goes first. The bike gets moved, the debris gets swept, the road markings get photographed by nobody. If you were hurt riding anywhere in Bakersfield or Kern County, reach us at (310) 600-7881, at any hour. The review costs nothing.
Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Culver Legal, LLP is a California law firm. The information on this page is for general informational purposes and does not constitute legal advice.
