Earlier this month, Omaha lost another rider. According to WOWT's reporting, a 38-year-old motorcyclist died after an SUV failed to yield at 144th and Corby in northwest Omaha. Police report the SUV driver was taken into custody on charges including motor-vehicle homicide and driving under the influence; those charges are allegations, and the investigation was ongoing. Our thoughts are with the rider's family.
I'm not writing about this crash to assign blame in a case I know only from the news. I'm writing because the pattern is one I've seen over and over in fifteen years of representing injured riders: a driver turns or pulls out, a motorcyclist with the right of way has nowhere to go, and afterward everyone hears the same sentence — "I didn't see him."
Why "I didn't see him" is not a defense
Failure to yield is one of the most common causes of serious motorcycle crashes. Drivers are conditioned to scan for cars, and their brains routinely look straight through a motorcycle. Under Nebraska law, that isn't an excuse — a driver's duty is to see what is there to be seen. When a rider has the right of way and a vehicle turns across their path, liability questions usually center on the driver, not the rider.
But insurers still blame the rider
Here's the hard truth rider families discover: motorcycle cases come with built-in jury bias. Insurance companies know some jurors assume riders are reckless, and they use it — arguing speed, lane position, conspicuity, anything to push fault onto the person on the bike. Under Nebraska's comparative negligence rule, shaving fault percentages directly shaves the recovery — and at 50% the claim disappears entirely. Overcoming that bias takes evidence: reconstruction, event data, witness work, and a lawyer prepared to try the case rather than discount it.
What families should know
- Criminal charges and civil claims are separate tracks. A DUI prosecution punishes the driver; it does not compensate the family. A wrongful death claim is the civil path, and it has its own deadlines and notice requirements.
- Insurance layers matter. Serious rider injuries routinely exceed the at-fault driver's policy. Underinsured motorist coverage — the rider's own, and sometimes household policies — often becomes the most important coverage in the case.
- Move quickly on evidence, before vehicles are released and video is overwritten.
I've represented riders and pedestrians struck by cars throughout Nebraska — several of those recoveries are on my results page. If your family is facing the aftermath of a motorcycle crash, I'm glad to give you an honest read on where you stand.
A rider's case needs a fighter, not a settler
Beating the bias against motorcyclists takes a lawyer who builds the evidence and is genuinely prepared to try the case — that's how I practice, and it's why my record includes jury verdicts as well as seven-figure settlements. My clients' own words are on my reviews page: 41 verified five-star reviews, from a firm voted Best of Omaha for personal injury law in 2025 and 2026. For a sense of what Nebraska injury cases actually resolve for, see my settlement examples guide.
Related practice areas: Motorcycle Accidents · Wrongful Death
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Frank Younes
Every page on this site is written by Frank Younes, a Nebraska trial attorney with a published record of verdicts and settlements, selection to the National Trial Lawyers Top 100, and a practice that covers every county in Nebraska and Iowa. No case is handed to an associate — the lawyer you read here is the lawyer who works your case.
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