Redwood Road (SR-68)
Side-impact collisions make up 42.7% of its 1,913 crashes, the highest share of any major street in the city. For a rider that is the classic case: a driver turning left or pulling out who says they never saw the bike.
SALT LAKE COUNTY
West Valley City Motorcycle Accident Lawyer
Down on a bike in West Valley City? Free consultation. You pay nothing up front, and no attorney fees unless we win.
Your Motorcycle Policy Almost Certainly Has No PIP
This is the first thing to understand, and most riders find out at the worst possible moment. Under Utah Code § 31A-22-302, motorcycles are excluded from the state's personal injury protection requirement. A car policy has to carry at least $3,000 of PIP; a motorcycle policy does not, and most do not.
So the no-fault money that pays a car occupant's first bills usually is not there for you. Your health insurance becomes the front line, with its deductible, its copays, and its right to be paid back out of any settlement. The at-fault driver's liability insurer does not pay anything until the claim resolves, which can be months.
What this means in practice
Check whether you bought PIP as an add-on, because some insurers sell it on a motorcycle policy even though the state does not require it. Then check your uninsured and underinsured motorist limits. For riders, UM/UIM is usually the most important coverage on the policy, because a serious motorcycle injury routinely exceeds the minimum liability a driver carries.
Where West Valley City Riders Go Down
UDOT recorded 24,218 crashes inside West Valley City between January 2018 and August 2025. The corridors below carry the patterns that hurt riders most. Street-by-street counts are on our page covering West Valley City's most dangerous roads.
5600 West (SR-172)
61 head-on collisions on a single street. Head-on is rare and catastrophic, and on a motorcycle it is often fatal. These cases are rebuilt from physical evidence, because the people who could describe it frequently cannot.
Bangerter Highway (SR-154)
Rear-end collisions are 51.9% of its crashes and officers flagged speed in 12.1%, both the highest in the city. A rear-end tap that dents a bumper puts a rider on the pavement.
Mountain View Highway (SR-85)
502 crashes but 9 deaths, more than any other street in the city. Higher speeds, fewer signals, and far worse outcomes when something goes wrong.
The Bias You Are Up Against
Adjusters and juries arrive with an assumption that the rider was going too fast, weaving, or taking a risk. Under Utah Code § 78B-5-818 fault is apportioned, so every percentage point they can move onto you comes straight off the recovery. At 50% you recover nothing.
Two Utah points worth knowing. Lane filtering is legal here under specific conditions, which is not the same as lane splitting and is routinely mischaracterized by insurers; we cover it in detail in Utah's lane filtering law. And helmet use is required only under 21 under Utah Code § 41-6a-1505, so an adult rider without one has not broken the law, though expect the argument about head injuries anyway.
Your deadlines
FOUR years for most injury claims under Utah Code § 78B-2-307. TWO years for wrongful death. ONE year to file a notice of claim if a government entity is involved, including UDOT, UTA, West Valley City or Salt Lake County. Road defect and gravel claims run against a government body, so that one-year notice matters more to riders than to drivers.
Motorcycle Cases We Handle in West Valley City
Left-turn and failure-to-yield crashes
A car turns across the rider's path at an intersection or a driveway. The defense is always some version of "I didn't see him," and the answer is sight lines, speed, and signal phase.
Lane-change and blind-spot crashes
A motorcycle occupies a fraction of a lane and disappears in a mirror. These cases turn on lane position and mirror geometry, not on the rider's reflexes.
Road hazard and surface crashes
Gravel, a dropped edge, an unmarked lane shift, a plate left over a trench. What is an annoyance in a car puts a bike down, and the responsible party may be a contractor or a government entity with a one-year notice deadline.
Underinsured drivers
Utah's minimum liability limits do not come close to a serious orthopedic injury. Where the driver's policy runs out, your own UIM is the rest of the recovery, and it is a separate claim against your own insurer.
Fatal crashes
A wrongful death claim in Utah is two years, not four, and it belongs to the heirs. Mountain View Highway alone accounts for nine deaths in this data.
What To Do After a Motorcycle Crash in West Valley City
- Call 911 and get a report. West Valley City Police respond inside city limits; the Utah Highway Patrol handles I-215 and SR-201. See how to get a West Valley City police crash report.
- Go to the hospital, not home. Holy Cross Hospital – West Valley at 3460 S 4155 West is a Level III trauma center. Riders routinely walk away from a crash and discover a fracture or a bleed hours later.
- Do not let the bike be repaired or scrapped. Its damage pattern, and the gear you were wearing, are evidence of speed and impact angle.
- Photograph the road surface where you went down, not only the vehicles. Gravel, fluid and pavement edges disappear with the next sweeper.
- Pull your own declarations page and check for UM/UIM and any optional PIP before you talk to anyone's insurer.
A case that has to be filed goes to the Third Judicial District Court for Salt Lake County. If you were hurt riding in West Valley City, call (801) 921-5134 or request a free case review. No attorney fees unless we win. See also our West Valley City car accident page and West Valley City personal injury page.
This page is general information about Utah law, not legal advice about your situation. Every case turns on its own facts. Past results do not guarantee a future outcome.