Personal injury law firm Horst Shewmaker, LLC is highlighting critical safety data from the Georgia Governor's Office of Highway Safety that identifies Cobb County as one of four Georgia counties with the highest rates of motorcycle fatalities and serious injuries, positioning the firm's legal team as a resource for riders injured on Marietta's most dangerous corridors.
The GOHS 2022 Motorcycle Traffic Safety Facts report, published in May 2024, places Cobb County alongside Fulton, DeKalb, and Gwinnett counties as Georgia's highest-risk areas for motorcycle crashes. Metro Atlanta accounts for 42 percent of all motorcycle crashes statewide despite representing a disproportionately small share of total Georgia roadway miles.
Horst Shewmaker Marietta motorcycle accident lawyer teams report seeing increased cases from crashes on Interstate 75, Cobb Parkway, and Roswell Road, where left-turn conflicts, improper lane changes, and blind-spot collisions represent the dominant crash patterns. These corridors experience elevated risk due to high traffic volumes, multiple access points, and drivers frequently underestimating motorcycle speed and proximity.
"The GOHS data confirming Cobb County among Georgia's top four motorcycle crash counties creates an especially challenging legal environment for injured riders," said Zachary S. Shewmaker, Co-Founding Attorney at Horst Shewmaker, LLC. "Insurance companies routinely exploit the statistic that over 50 percent of Georgia motorcycle crash victims were riding with invalid license designations to argue contributory negligence and reduce settlement values. Riders attempting to navigate these claims without experienced representation face significant disadvantages."
The statistics reveal motorcycles represent only 0.4 percent of registered vehicles in Georgia yet account for nearly 13 percent of total traffic fatalities, a 30-times overrepresentation driven by the physical vulnerability of riders in vehicle-to-vehicle collisions. Georgia recorded 207 motorcycle fatalities in 2022, marking a 7 percent year-over-year increase and continuing an upward trend since 2017.
Recent legislative changes through Georgia Senate Bill 68, signed in April 2025, have introduced new complexities for motorcycle injury claims. While the law's seat belt evidence provision does not apply directly to motorcycle helmets, its noneconomic damage restrictions and phantom medical expense rules directly affect how motorcycle injury compensation is calculated. The phantom damage restriction particularly impacts motorcycle injury claims, as emergency trauma, intensive care, and orthopedic surgical billing in serious crashes frequently exceeds insurance payment rates by substantial margins.
The firm emphasizes that riders whose claims arise after the new law's implementation can only recover the lower amounts actually paid by insurance unless their Marietta motorcycle accident lawyer structures medical documentation to reflect the full anticipated cost of recovery. This change makes early and thorough medical documentation critical for crash victims seeking fair compensation.
Horst Shewmaker, LLC is a personal injury law firm serving motorcycle accident victims in Marietta, Cobb County, and throughout North Georgia. Attorneys Michael W. Horst, Zachary S. Shewmaker, Jarrett L. Miller, and Valerie Jane Pallos have recovered more than $30 million in damages for clients over more than 20 years of personal injury practice. The firm was named Best of Georgia 2025 and handles motorcycle accidents, car accidents, truck accidents, pedestrian accidents, and wrongful death claims on a contingency fee basis with no upfront costs.
###
For more information about Horst Shewmaker, LLC, contact the company here:
Horst Shewmaker, LLC
Zachary S. Shewmaker
6785627714
info@horstshewmaker.com
10745 Westside Way Suite 165, Alpharetta, GA 30009
