Breaking Down a Bicycle Accident Claim

In 2024, bicycle ridership hit an all-time high of over 110 million Americans. Significantly, the number of children, a ridership demographic that’s been dropping since 2018, increased greatly. All bicycle riders, especially children, are extremely vulnerable to serious injuries in vehicle collisions.

Thin bicycle helmets resemble egg crates in many ways. If you jostle an egg crate, the eggs will probably be undamaged. But if you drop an egg crate, the eggs smash to pieces.

An Oceanside personal injury lawyer works diligently to build a case, as outlined below, and obtain maximum compensation for bicycle accident victims. This compensation usually includes money for economic losses, such as medical bills, and noneconomic losses, such as pain and suffering.

Negligence Per Se

Aggressive driving, like speeding, and operator impairment, like drug or alcohol use, substantially causes most bicycle crashes. Usually, these activities violate traffic and/or criminal laws.

If a tortfeasor (negligent driver) is charged with a violation of a traffic or criminal law, and that alleged violation substantially causes injury, the tortfeasor may be legally responsible for the aforementioned damages as a matter of law.

The negligence per se shortcut usually reduces the effort an Oceanside personal injury lawyer must put into a case. This reduction usually means lower legal fees, so victims keep more of their settlement money.

However, this shortcut only applies if emergency responders issue traffic or criminal violations in bicycle accident cases. Many emergency responders believe that bicycle wrecks are civil matters, not police matters. So, they refuse to get involved.

Ordinary Negligence

Basically, ordinary negligence is a lack of ordinary care. Most drivers have a duty of reasonable care, which requires them to avoid accidents if possible, and always obey the written and unwritten rules of the road.

Compensation is available in an ordinary negligence case if a breach of duty causes injury. We mentioned some common breaches of duty above. Now, let’s break them down a little more.

• Aggressive Driving: Speed increases the risk of a wreck and the force in a bicycle collision. Speed multiplies stopping distance. A car travelling at 45mph takes almost twice as long to stop as a car travelling 30mph. Speed also multiplies the force in a collision, according to Newton’s Second Law of Gravity.
• Operator Impairment: Alcohol and drugs adversely affect judgement ability and motor skills. Impaired driving judgments include such critical items as the distance between a vehicle and a bicycle or the amount of time before a light changes. Drivers with impaired motor skills often lose control of their vehicles.

Several insurance company defenses, such as comparative fault, could apply in ordinary negligence cases.

This legal doctrine shifts blame for a bicycle crash from the tortfeasor to the victim. Assume Don the drunk driver and Barry the bicycle rider collide in an intersection. An insurance company lawyer might admit that Don was impaired, and nevertheless blame Barry for the wreck, because he didn’t come to a complete stop at a stop sign.

If the judge allows the jury to consider such evidence, jurors must divide fault on a percentage basis according to the evidence presented.

California is a pure comparative fault state. Even if Barry was 99 percent responsible for this wreck, Don is legally responsible for a proportionate share of compensation.

Reach Out to a Hard-Working San Diego County Lawyer

Injury victims are entitled to substantial compensation. For a confidential consultation with an experienced personal injury lawyer in Oceanside, contact the Pursley Law Firm. The sooner you reach out to us, the sooner we start working for you.

Source:

peopleforbikes.org/news/bicycling-participation-report-2024