If you get into a motorcycle accident, you could end up with road rash injuries. A road rash injury can vary in degrees of severity.
It is important to be able to determine the degree of your injury to be able to properly treat road rash and move forward from the injury.
Call us today for a free consultation, text us from this page or fill out this page’s free case evaluation form if you or a loved one has been injured in a motorcycle accident. We can help you recover financial compensation for medical bills, lost wages, property, pain, suffering and wrongful death. We won’t charge any fee to handle your road rash case unless and until we recover compensation for you. Call us today.
What Is Road Rash?
Road rash is a form of skin abrasion or friction burn. It happens when a rough surface scrapes your skin. These injuries are sometimes referred to as strawberries or raspberries.
Road rash needs to be treated correctly so the wound doesn’t become infected. Proper treatment also helps to prevent or limit road rash scarring.
Road rashes are superficial skin injuries. The outer tissue gets ripped away after being scraped or rubbed against an object. Road rash is usually minor, but sometimes involves numerous layers of skin being removed, necessitating skin grafting surgery for it to heal properly. It can also lead to serious bacterial infection.
Road rash happens more often in the summer and spring because people often wear less clothing during this time of year. This means their skin is not as protected when a fall or accident occurs.
There are many activities which can lead to road rash:
- Motorcycle riding
- Skateboarding
- Biking
- Running
- Softball or baseball
Degrees of Road Rash: How Severe Is It?
There are three different degrees of road rash injuries:
First Degree
First degree road rash involves superficial skin abrasions and minimal bleeding. The area affected might be swollen, red and painful. The skin will be intact but might show minor cuts or signs of irritation.
If you have suffered a first degree road rash injury, medical treatment will involve cleaning the area that has been affected using water and mild soap. Then apply an antiseptic solution. Then, use a sterile dressing and monitor the injury for any signs of bacterial infection.
Second Degree
Second degree road rash is characterized by deeper abrasions which involve partial skin loss. The area affected might have moderate bleeding. The tissue exposed might be sensitive to any touch. Second degree road rash involves broken skin which exposes underlying layers. Visible gravel or debris might be embedded in the injury.
If you have suffered a second degree road rash injury, treating skin abrasions will involve thoroughly cleaning your wound in order to remove foreign particles and debris. Promote healing by applying a non-adherent dressing with antibiotic ointment. Seek medical attention should the wound be extensive or show signs of infection.
Third Degree
Third degree road rash is severe road rash. It involves full-thickness loss of skin and extensive damage to tissue. Bone, tendons and muscle may be exposed by the wound, and this can lead to pain and severe bleeding. These wounds appear deep, with exposed underlying structures and significant loss of tissue.
Immediate medical attention is required when third degree road rash occurs. The wound should be cleaned gently to control bleeding and remove debris. The area should be covered using a sterile dressing. Emergency care should be sought for treatment and further evaluation. Wound management, skin grafting and debridement may be required until the wound heals.
Road Rash Healing Timeline: What Next
While mild cases of road rash can be treated at the injury site, at home, on the road or on the playing field, severe cases should be treated by healthcare providers.
If your wound isn’t bleeding heavily and your pain is tolerable, it’s likely you’ll be able to treat it at home.
If your road rash injury isn’t bad enough to justify calling 911, road rash treatment will involve first rinsing the area that’s been affected with soapy water in order to flush debris and dirt out of the wound. Then, apply gauze to the wound, wrapping it to keep it in place.
As your road rash heals, the pain will improve – although the injury may still remain tender for a bit of time.
For mild road rash, consider using over the counter pain medication such as acetaminophen. If you have severe road rash, your healthcare provider might prescribe you some pain medication.
Road rash will usually heal well by itself and the healed skin usually won’t show much or any scarring. You should still watch your abrasion while it heals. After day one, you can apply antibiotic ointment on the wound when dressing it. Be careful not to use ointment not recommended for use on burns like Bactroban. Your skin can be restored as it heals via use of vitamin E cream.
Remove your old dressing, replacing it with new dressing on a daily basis. Watch for infection signs while you heal. These include pain, fever and increased redness. Call a healthcare provider if you show these signs.
If you get infected, you’ll probably need to visit a healthcare provider for antibiotics. Untreated infections of the skin can cause severe complications which may be life-threatening.
If your road rash is particularly severe, it could involve deeper skin layers. See a healthcare provider if it takes over two weeks in order to heal.
Road rash can leave scars that look like burn scars. More severe road rash is more likely to scar.
Severe road rash might need to be treated as if it is a burn. Surgery may be necessary. Skin grafting involves healthy skin from another body part being used to cover the injury. This skin is typically removed from a part hidden by your clothing, like your inner thigh or buttock.
The skin graft gets transplanted onto your injury and is held in place using gentle pressure as well as stitches, staples or padded dressing. New blood vessels will grow as it heals, helping new skin to form, healing your wound.
Your medical provider should be able to give you more information about the road rash recovery process.
Preventing Road Rash
Motorcyclists are around nine times as likely to get injured than others in traffic accidents. Around 100,000 people get injured every year in motorcycle accidents because of lacking proper gear and safety equipment.
Ride defensively and make sure you wear the following to help to prevent road rash:
- A helmet: Helmets will prevent road rash on your face as well as decrease the odds you suffer a neck, brain or head injury.
- Eye protection: Goggles can prevent eye scrapes as well as keep dust and debris from temporarily blinding you, which could cause a serious accident.
- Durable, ballistic nylon or leather pants and jackets: Resistant and durable clothing, like leather and heavy duty nylon, can provide you with a protective lawyer, which can prevent a skid or drag from peeling off any flesh. Wear protective clothing to prevent road rash injuries.
- Gloves: Protective gloves will protect your hands from being mangled, cut or scraped.
- Durable footwear or boots: Durable shoes will provide you with additional traction on your bike. They’ll also protect your foot from abrasions if you need to suddenly put it down.
Possible Road Rash Complications
Road rash can cause severe complications if it isn’t treated.
Possible complications from road rash include:
- Infection: There is a high risk that open wounds develop bacterial infections like tetanus or MRSA when debris gets embedded and the wounds aren’t cleaned properly.
- Cellulitis: This is an infection to soft tissue under your skin around your wound. It causes warmth, redness and painful swelling. It usually requires antibiotics.
- Scar tissue: Deep wounds are prone to buildup of scar tissue during the healing process. This can cause disfigurement, tightness or pain.
- Sensation loss: It’s possible that nerve damage will occur with deep road rash. This can lead to altered sensation or numbness in the area of the injury.
- Delayed healing: Patient non-compliance, badly managed wound care, contamination or infection can delay the healing process.
- Amputation: Extremely severe road rash may lead to necrosis, and amputation might be needed to prevent infection or further tissue loss.
Proper dressings, debridement of tissue that isn’t viable, wound cleaning and evaluation are vital to reduce complication risks. It’s a good idea to see a specialist if your case is complicated.
How a Road Rash Accident Attorney Can Help
If you’ve been injured in a motorcycle accident, California law allows you to recover financial compensation from anyone whose negligence caused your accident. In most cases, this means that the at-fault party’s insurance company is liable for your medical bills, lost wages, pain, suffering and more.
However, just because the insurance company is liable for your damages doesn’t necessarily mean it will pay for them. This liability can only be enforced through the civil court system. This means that if an insurance company doesn’t want to pay you what you’re actually entitled to, the only way you can make them is by suing them and winning.
Of course, the insurance company knows you can’t win a lawsuit against their lawyers if you don’t have a lawyer of your own. So, if you are not represented by an experienced motorcycle accident lawyer, the insurance company is simply going to offer you a tiny fraction of what you deserve and dare you to sue them over it.
Hiring a lawyer is the best way to ensure you recover the most compensation possible after a motorcycle accident. Studies show that injury victims with lawyers recover much more money than injury victims without lawyers, even after taking attorney fees into account. Most of our cases settle out of court because insurance companies know that when we go to court, we win.
It’s also important to hire a lawyer so you can have a lawyer talk with insurance companies for you. Insurance companies will try to trick you into saying things they can use to pay you less money or no money at all after a motorcycle accident. Experienced lawyers know all of these tricks and won’t fall for them.
If you hire us to handle your case, we will handle every aspect of your case for you so all you need to do is focus on your family and recovery. The last thing you need after your motorcycle accident is the stress of having to deal with an insurance claim yourself. We’ll make the legal process as easy and stress-free as possible for you.
If you can’t afford treatment for your motorcycle accident injuries, we can get you to doctors who will treat your injuries on a lien, which means that you won’t be charged for your treatment until your case ends. Doctors do this for our motorcycle accident clients because doctors know that when we accept motorcycle accident cases, we get great results.
Contact Our Team Today
If you or a loved one has suffered road rash or another injury after a motorcycle accident, call us today for a free consultation. We won’t charge any fee until and unless we win your case and we can recover compensation for your medical bills, lost wages, pain, suffering and more. Call us today.
Jeffrey Nadrich
Jeffrey Nadrich is a nationally-recognized California plaintiff’s personal injury attorney. He is a graduate of UC Berkeley and UC Hastings College of the Law. He has successfully represented thousands of injury clients over the last 40 years.
