What Should I Do After a Bicycle Accident?
You are riding along on your bicycle and out of nowhere, a car hits you. What do you do? After you get the medical care you need to call a bicycle attorney. A Laguna Hills personal injury attorney that is experienced in bicycle accidents can be your best ally.
There are specific laws in place to help bicyclists from injuries, and often those laws are not respected by motorists. Share the road campaigns and more have not seemed to help the escalation of bicycle accidents. A bicycle attorney can help.
The Rise in Bicycle Accidents
There were over 40000 car accidents involving bicyclists in 2018. There was a 12% increase in fatalities as well that year. As more people are trying to do the environmentally right thing by using their bikes to get around town, the risk of accidents is increasing exponentially.
Of course, the increase in bicyclists is only part of the equation, each year millions of new drivers join the 227 million drivers that are already on the road. Between the increase in bicyclists and the increase in the number of drivers on the road, it is a recipe for disaster.
Misconceptions About Bicycle Accidents
A lot of clients that meet with their injury attorney are surprised to find out that they can be held at fault for an accident. Bicyclists that are sharing the road with motorized vehicles are expected to follow the same laws as motorists. The insurance companies love to exploit that idea.
If you pulled out in front of a car, cut a car off, did not use turning signals to alert the driver, you may be charged with the accident. It sounds ludicrous to many bicyclists because they do not have the protection that the vehicle has and are less of a threat than a vehicle is.
Here are some rules a bicyclist is expected to follow:
No unexpected lane changes.
Yielding to pedestrians, and always respecting traffic lights.
Staying off the sidewalk.
The insurance company will try to use any of these laws to show that you were at fault in the accident. It is important to have a bicycle attorney on your side that has fought these battles before. A bicycle attorney is well aware of how the insurance company can turn things around to avoid having to pay out big claims.
This is not a fight that you want to take on, on your own. Get the legal help you need to help protect your rights.