Bicycle Accident Injury Attorney

A common error made by individuals, and even attorneys, is to evaluate a motor vehicle versus bike accident as if it involved a pedestrian. A bicyclist who is riding their bicycle is not a pedestrian; for most purposes the bicyclist is under the same traffic rules and regulations as is the automobile. 

The importance of this fact is that the operating behavior of the automobile and bicyclist, needs to be considered on basically an equal footing as if the accident involved two automobiles. While in some cases this will work against the bicyclist (such as if the bicyclist is riding against traffic), it more often than not works to protect the bicyclists because the bicyclist has the right of away to the road in most cases just as if the situation were if the bicyclist were operating a motor vehicle. A bicyclist hit from behind by a motor vehicle tantamount to a rear-end type motor vehicle accident. An automobile passing a bicyclist must obey the law just as if it were passing another car. Similar rules and applications apply in terms of stop signs, yield signs, signal lights, and other roadway controls and conditions.

Automobile drivers have a tendency to usurp the right of way owned by bicyclists and this is the cause of many accidents, including very serious ones involving injuries to the bicyclist because the bicyclist is clearly unprotected, the collision with the motor vehicle often results in devastating injuries. 

While insurance companies like to blame bicyclists for collisions, thereby evading the payment that the insurance company owes to the injured bicyclist, they often do so without a reasonable or factual basis, and ignore very clear traffic laws.

A unique aspect to handling a bicycle case is the difference in speed, both actually and in capability, between an automobile and the bicyclist. It is all to easy for an insurance company to use false calculations of speed and distance to try to blame a bicyclist for an accident really caused by their insured automobile driver. There are also significant issues to be assessed concerning visibility and it is not a proper defense by an insurance company to deny a claim payable to an injured bicyclist because of a contention that the driver did not or could not see the bicyclist because the automobile driver was looking for cars and not bicyclists. It is the duty of every car driver to keep a proper look out, and that proper look out, i.e., paying proper attention to the roadway and conditions, means that the driver should operate the vehicle at such a speed and paying such attention so as to be able to observe not only other automobiles, but bicyclists and pedestrians. 

Riding a bicycle is not an invitation to a car driver to hit you because you may be harder to observe, rather, the legal operation of a bicycle imposes a duty on a car driver to carefully and properly operate their vehicle in an undistracted, attentive manor, and at a proper speed, while yielding all right of ways to which the bicyclist is entitled. Though many motorist consider bicyclists as “intruders” onto the roadway, this attitude is completely wrong under the law, and is the unfortunate cause of many accidents involving cars and bicyclists, with often time very serious injuries and results. 

If you have operated a bicycle and been injured as a result of a collision with a motor vehicle, you should not be apologetic in any fashion for choosing to operate your bicycle. The car that was operated negligently is the one who should be apologizing, not you. The insurance company that suggests to you otherwise, belittles you, or someone suggests or implies that you have less rights to the roadway by virtue of riding your bicycle, is really engaged in a campaign of deceit, and the obvious purpose is to evade payment to the injured bicyclist which is owed by insurance company. 

Insurance companies often go to great lengths to try to obtain tape recorded statements from bicyclists in order to give them some excuse to deny payment of the claim. It is very easy for a bicyclist to make an innocent mistake in a statement because of the differences in speed and distance capabilities between the vehicle and bicycle, and under no circumstances should you consent to any recorded statement. In fact, you should not even discuss the facts of the accident with the other side’s insurance company without first having obtained a free consultation from an experienced personal injury attorney who handles bicycle accident cases. 

Our law firm has over 30 years of experience in successfully resolving bicycle accident injury claims in the Stockton area. Call us today to schedule your FREE consultation! Why wait? The initial consultation costs you nothing! Delay can cost you everything!!