Bicycle Accidents

Bicycle Accidents

Bicycle accidents fall into several types or categories, and each one requires special experts and expertise to properly handle the unique legal issues involved with each case. Bicycle cases can have a unique set of laws depending on the city you are in, so it is strongly recommended to retain an attorney to assist you in these cases. 

 

Some legal and medical issues that all bicycle accidents have in common are as follows:  

BICYCLE HELMETS AND TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY:  All bicycle accidents have a potential helmet issue, where there are questions involving whether or not the bicycle rider was engaging in the safest bicycle practices. This does not come into play if there is no head trauma, but can be a significant issue if there is a head injury, concussion, or trauma. When there was a failure to wear a bicycle helmet, this fact alone does not mean that the wrongdoer who caused the accident is innocent. Rather, it will have an impact to some degree if there is some comparative fault on the part of the injured party that would fairly reduce the award. This is an issue that you should retain an attorney for, as comparative negligence can be a complicated argument, and require experts to help ascertain the nature and extent, if any, of comparative fault. For example, our firm secured a $2.25 million settlement for a client that was not wearing a bicycle helmet and was found at fault on the police report. Every case is different and so are the outcomes, but this settlement occurred because the facts in the case were properly argued by credible and experienced attorneys.     

 

BICYCLES MAY HAVE SPEED AND DIRECTION DATA RECORDED:  Many bicycles have hardware and programs that track their speed up to and including the time of impact on a bicycle collision. This is excellent information to retain on any bicycle case, and a good attorney with experience in bicycle accidents will ask you about that information on intake and counsel you to preserve it and produce it immediately so that you can have that vital evidence before litigation. The attorneys at Child & Jackson have won several contested cases where the defendant lied about how the accident happened, only to be disproven by the available objective data provided by the bike speed and location data.

BICYCLES ARE TREATED AS VEHICLES [WITH IMPORTANT EXCEPTIONS]:   Bicycles are all subject to being treated as "vehicles" under California law. Meaning that bicycles and their drivers are treated the same as cars and trucks for purposes of vehicular traffic under the law in most circumstances where they are driving on a roadway. 

 

Specifically, the California Vehicle Code 21200 (a) states in pertinent part: "Every person riding a bicycle upon a highway has all the rights and is subject to all the provisions applicable to the driver of a vehicle by this division... except those provisions which by their very nature can have no application."

 

CITY ORDINANCES AND CODES OFTEN APPLY:  All bicycle accidents have potential municipal (city) ordinances or codes that may apply to the bicycle accident, depending on where the bicycle accident occurred. Your attorney will need to research these in detail before sending a demand letter. Sometimes bicycle lanes have unique requirements in a particular city, or bicycles/scooters may be not allowed in certain areas due to dangerous traffic conditions or other reasons. 

 

THERE ARE FREQUENTLY EXCEPTIONS BASED ON COMMON SENSE SAFETY ISSUES:  Insurance carriers will often use these municipal codes even though it is dangerous to be treated as vehicles or follow local ordinances in many cases. You need strong and experienced attorneys that know the law to combat the unfair application of these laws, which is frequently attempted by insurance carriers. For example, there are many cases where bicycles are forbidden from riding on sidewalks, but riding in the adjacent street would be a near-death sentence. Bicycle accidents often happen when they were riding on a shoulder or entry area, to avoid a pothole, or pedestrians, or within a crosswalk while going from walking to riding. All of these issues become very complicated depending on the specific facts of the case and must be navigated by your attorney.

 

For example, in one case a bicycle rider hopped on his bike right after entering the inside of a pedestrian crosswalk to go to the other side of the street, as the intersection had a massive flow of auto and truck traffic and was unsafe for her to ride in the vehicle lanes. While riding very slowly in the crosswalk another car ran a red light and seriously injured her. The insurance carrier denied liability, stating that the bicycle was also not allowed to be in the crosswalk as she was not a pedestrian because she had hopped on her bicycle after the light turned green for the pedestrians to walk. In such a case a strict application of the law does not apply as specifically written, and certainly was not intended for this circumstance, and would be usurped by common law negligence as the prevailing legal application. Our firm was able to settle for a significant amount despite other attorneys having turned the case down.

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