Where Do Bike Accidents Happen?

Cyclists are not safeguarded by the occupant protection measures that passenger vehicles provide. This means that they face significantly higher exposure to injury and fatality risks in collisions. Bike accidents frequently involve severe injuries and significant damages, such as healthcare bills and income losses that place inordinate stress on top of prioritizing recovery. 

If a bike accident caused you or a loved one to suffer injuries, consulting a San Francisco bicycle accident attorney may significantly benefit your case. Schedule your free consultation to explore your legal options today.

Where Do Bike Accidents Happen the Most?

Due to high traffic density, shared roadway congestion, complicated road systems, and poor infrastructure for bike riders, such as a lack of dedicated bicycle lanes, most bike accidents happen in urban areas. Data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) demonstrates that 85 percent of bicycle fatalities occur in urban areas, with light trucks (pickup trucks, SUVs, and vans) causing 46 percent of that figure. Other places bike accidents happen the most are as follows:

• Major Roads: Higher speed limits and vehicle traffic make major roadways risky for bicyclists. While laws exist to protect cyclists when sharing the road with motorists, many drivers disregard or disobey them.
• Intersections: Forty-five percent of bike accidents happen in intersections. These may result from limited visibility, increased complexity such as roundabouts, and driver negligence. Speeding and distraction are leading causes of driver error that cause bicycle collisions.
• Bike Lanes: Bicycle lanes are designed to protect cyclists sharing roadways with motorists. Unfortunately, drivers are frequently distracted or fail to acknowledge the laws surrounding cyclists in bike lanes. In urban areas, bike lanes are adjacent to parked cars, making dooring—when a driver negligently opens their car door into a cyclist—a significant threat to bike accidents. 
• Driveway Access Roads: Driveway access roads can be dangerous for cyclists. Drivers who fail to pause and check for bicyclists before reversing their vehicles out of their driveways are responsible for causing collisions.

Close to 1,000 cyclists are killed, and over 130,000 become injured in bike accidents occurring on roadways in the U.S. annually. Children, teenagers, and young adults experience the highest rates of bike-related injuries treated in emergency departments nationwide. The highest risk population for bike accident fatalities are adults aged 55-69. If you or a loved one suffered injuries, speaking with an experienced bike accident lawyer can provide much-needed legal insight on how to proceed with your case. You’ll want to determine a plan for pursuing compensation for the damages relevant to your claim.

What Causes Bike Accidents to Happen?

Bike accidents can happen regardless of how safe and experienced a cyclist is. You can wear the appropriate safety gear, follow traffic and bike laws, and still become a victim of a negligent injury-causing bike accident. While there are numerous causes for a collision, most involve driver error. Roughly one-third of bike accidents resulting in death involve alcohol use by the motorist and/or cyclist. Other significant driver errors that cause bike accidents include the following:

• Dooring
• Speeding
• Failing to yield
• Distracted driving
• Unsafe lane changes
• Blocking the bike lane
• Aggressive driving behaviors
• Carelessly merging into traffic
• Disobeying or ignoring traffic signals and signage

In addition to driver negligence, bike accidents happen because of poor weather and hazardous road conditions, such as cracked concrete and debris. Defective bicycle parts also contribute to collisions. When another person’s negligence is responsible for your bike accident, you may be eligible to seek financial compensation for incurred losses.

You’ll want to bring any photos taken at the accident scene to your free consultation. They help establish cause and liability. It’s common for injury victims to not possess these pictures, especially in severe injury cases. In these cases, a bike accident lawyer usually visits the scene to document vital evidence, such as vehicle skid marks or dangerous road conditions.

Who Is Liable for Bike Accidents?

Liability falls on the individual at fault for the bike accident and bears the burden of proving negligence. An attorney starts by gathering evidence and witness statements to demonstrate liability. They may also consult experts within their network to secure testimony confirming their findings and strengthening the evidence in your case. Depending on the details of the collision, multiple parties may be liable for injuries and damages in a bike accident, such as:

• Motorists: Motor vehicle operators are the leading cause of bike accidents. Distractions such as cell phone use, eating, drinking, and reaching for things within a vehicle contribute to these accidents.
• Pedestrians: Pedestrians contribute to accidents in various ways, including jaywalking and failing to yield the right of way. Like motorists, pedestrians are easily distracted by cell phones and cause collisions by walking distractedly. It commonly leads them to enter oncoming traffic in bicycle lanes without looking. 
• Bicyclists: Other cyclists can be responsible for crashes when practicing unsafe riding behaviors, such as erratic maneuvering, sudden braking, unprovoked direction changes, and failing to signal lane changes or follow traffic laws. 
• Dog Owners: Unleashed dogs can contribute to bike accidents by their startling actions, such as barking, jumping, growling, lunging, and chasing. Loose leashes quickly become entangled in bicycle wheels, leading to collisions. Dogs can also crash directly into bike riders. Dog owners are liable because of their negligent handling of their animals. 

Government entities or local municipalities may be liable for bike accidents resulting from hazardous road conditions. These agencies have a duty of care to ensure public safety. Failure to reasonably warn and address hazards constitutes liability. Dangerous road conditions include large potholes, poor street drainage (causing standing water), unsafe road shoulders, and specific debris in the road.

Cases involving government liability are more complex and, depending on state jurisdiction, may have a reduced statute of limitations. To manage these claims, you’ll want a bike accident attorney experienced in pursuing compensation from the government.

Compensation You May Recover After a Bike Accident

Compensation amounts vary with bike accidents depending on damage caps, insurance policy limits, state jurisdiction, and case circumstances. Bike accident attorneys utilize economists and vocational experts from their professional network to strengthen your compensation claim. Together, they assess the value of your economic and non-economic damages to determine how much your bike accident claim is worth. It’s an involved process and unique to the circumstances surrounding your collision.

Economic Damages

The economic or special damages in a bike accident claim refer to the monetary losses incurred. States do not impose damage caps on economic losses, meaning you can seek compensation for all financial losses relating to the crash. They are verifiable by their paper trail of evidence. Standard economic damages attorneys value when assessing bike accidents are as follows:

• Medical Costs: Healthcare expenses relating to bike accident injuries are a substantial economic loss. These frequently include ambulance transport, emergency services, surgical and post-operative care, primary care, and rehabilitation services. All labs, diagnostics, imaging, prescription medications, copays, and deductibles are calculated expenses. 
• Long-Term Care: If injuries warrant the need for long-term or future medical care, a life care planner and your treating physicians determine these needs and associated costs. They assess medical, surgical, rehabilitation, pharmaceutical, and long-term facility care needs.
• Lost Earnings: Income losses from missing work are recoverable. They may include lost income, overtime, bonuses, and benefits. When injuries cause a diminished work performance or the inability to return to work, lawyers consult vocational rehabilitation specialists to determine lost future earnings or reduced earning capacity.
• Property Damages: A bike accident claim or lawsuit can recover all destroyed property. This generally includes compensation for bicycles, helmets, cell phones, and clothing. 

Injured parties must provide comprehensive documentation of all expenditures to ensure their calculations and full value of their bike accident claim. This is not an exhaustive list of economic damages that an injured party may recover following a collision. In some circumstances, bike accident injury victims may seek compensation for childcare, household services, and travel costs associated with undergoing medical treatments. When in doubt, ask your attorney.

Non-Economic Damages

The non-economic or general damages in a bike accident claim account for the intangible losses experienced following the collision. They vary depending on the circumstances of your bike accident, the severity of your injuries, and the long-term effects on daily life. Standard non-economic damages an attorney may pursue in a bike accident claim include the following:

• Physical pain (acute and chronic)
• Emotional distress (fear, anger, frustration, confusion)
• Trouble sleeping (insomnia and nightmares)
• Generalized anxiety 
• Post-accident depression
• Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
• Permanent impairment (hearing and vision loss and amputations)
• Loss of society and companionship
• Cognitive issues
• Disability and disfigurement 
• Decreased quality of life
• Loss of enjoyment of life
• A shortened life expectancy (lost years)

While they are not as easily quantifiable, an attorney will advise you on documenting non-economic damages so injured parties may seek full compensation. Keeping a post-accident journal with detailed entries outlining your injury symptoms helps establish pain and suffering. Details and consistency are key in this being viable evidence for non-economic damages in your claim.

Wrongful Death Benefits

Families suffering the unexpected loss of a loved one in a bike accident due to another’s negligence may be eligible to secure wrongful death benefits. These compensate for funeral and burial costs, the decedent’s income losses, and final medical expenses. Depending on the nature of the relationship, a wrongful death beneficiary may obtain compensation for a loss of consortium, parental guidance, and inheritance. The conscious pain and suffering of the decedent from the time of injury until death and for that of surviving family members are intangible losses that lawyers may determine when valuing claims.

How a Bike Accident Lawyer Helps Strengthen Your Case

Insurance companies will automatically consider your claim more carefully when a bike accident lawyer is attached because they understand they cannot utilize their tactics for manipulating claimants without legal representation. All communications are handled between attorneys and insurers, so they can’t pressure you for a recorded statement to use against you or misrepresent policy language and terms to minimize your settlement.

Furthermore, insurance companies acknowledge that bike accident attorneys value the damages in these cases and know their worth. That means they can’t undervalue your claim. Other ways that a bike accident lawyer significantly strengthens your case include the following:

• Evidence Collection: Attorneys work swiftly to recover video of your crash from surveillance from traffic cameras, dashcams, and security cameras from commercial buildings before it is lost. Other evidence they may gather includes traffic violations of the at-fault driver, witness statements, accident scene photos, medical records, and expert opinions.
• Liability Assessment: A considerable benefit of hiring an attorney is their thorough investigation into liability. Due to the severe nature of bike accidents and the subsequent injuries, it’s essential to identify all liable parties. This will allow all available avenues for recovering full compensation for your losses. 
• Firm Negotiations: Bike accident lawyers prepare and exhibit firm negotiations when pursuing compensation from insurance companies. They don’t back down from fair settlement demands when insurers attempt to lowball their liability. Attorneys fight for injured parties who deserve a voice in a system designed to see them fail. 

Most bike accident lawyers operate within contingent fee arrangements to avoid further burdening injured parties with additional financial stress. Contingency allows anyone to retain legal counsel without paying anything out-of-pocket. These arrangements also frequently guarantee that clients don’t pay unless their bike accident attorney wins compensation for their claim or lawsuit.

Some firms may still collect the costs of obtaining medical records and court filing fees, regardless of case outcomes. You must have prospective lawyers clarify their fee structure. There’s no real reason to work with an attorney who doesn’t work on a contingency basis.

Speak to an Experienced Bike Accident Attorney Today

Bike accident victims who sustained injuries and actual damages in their collision may be eligible to recover substantial compensation for their claim. Each state operates within a statute of limitations from the date of the accident. You don’t want to delay legal counsel and wind up absorbing the costs of medical bills and other expenses down the road. 

Schedule a free consultation with an experienced San Francisco bicycle accident lawyer to discuss your case’s strengths and weaknesses before strategizing a way to secure a fair settlement.