Does Your Auto Insurance Cover Bicycle Accidents?

Yes, in most cases. For insurance reasons, a bicycle accident is just like a car accident. Bicycles and cars are both motor vehicles. Insurance companies have more than enough money to pay bicycle accident claims. These companies earn more than $1 trillion a year. But instead of using this money to immediately pay claims, they use it to hire lawyers who fight these claims.

These lawyers typically begin working within a few hours of a bicycle accident. So, these victims need legal help as soon as possible. A Bicycle Accident Attorney Los Angeles diligently prepares a case, and puts victim welfare first. Attorneys connect victims with doctors who focus on bicycle crash-related injuries and use this treatment as the foundation of a solid case.

Bicycle Accident Injuries

The average insurance settlement in a bicycle accident claim is very high, mostly because the injuries these victims sustain are so serious. Vehicle occupants are well-protected during collisions. Bicycle riders usually only have the clothes on their backs. As a result, they sustain injuries like:

• Broken Bones: When riders fall off their bikes during collisions, they usually shatter their bones. Additionally, their legs are usually crushed between the bike and a tortfeasor’s (negligent driver’s) vehicle. As a result, they sustain severe broken bones that typically never entirely heal.
• Exsanguination: Stray bone fragments often pierce internal organs, causing massive blood loss (exsanguination). Internal bleeding is almost impossible to stop at the accident scene, because emergency responders have no advanced diagnostic equipment. So, by the time bicycle accident victims reach hospitals, they’ve often lost about a fifth of their blood supplies.
• Head Injuries: The motion of a fall, as opposed to the impact of a fall off a bicycle, often causes a head injury. Such extreme motion causes the brain to slam against the insides of the skull. The brutal impact causes permanent injuries. Dead brain cells never regenerate. At best, physical therapists train uninjured areas of the brain to assume lost functions.

All these force-related injuries are especially severe in bicycle crashes, because a 20-pound bicycle collides with a 4,000-plus-pound vehicle.

Bicycle Accidents and Driver Error

Insurance usually covers bicycle accidents caused by driver error. One of the two following categories of driver error causes over 95 percent of the bicycle accidents in California.

• Operator Impairment: Drug use is one of the most common kinds of operator impairment. According to one study, serious injury collisions increase 475 percent in states, such as California, that legalize recreational marijuana use. Alcohol impairment and excessive fatigue have basically the same effect on the body and brain as drug use.
• Aggressive Driving: Speeding and other forms of aggressive driving cause a significant number of car accidents. The effects of aggressive driving are multiplied when a large vehicle and a defenseless victim are in play, as mentioned above.

Ironically, well-intentioned safety measures often contribute to bicycle accidents. Designated bicycle lanes are a good example.

Frequently, cities use concrete pillars to separate primary traffic lanes from bicycle traffic lanes. These pillars reduce driver visibility, especially if the driver is impaired. Furthermore, the fact that bicycle lanes reduce the size of primary lanes angers many drivers, causing them to drive aggressively.

Significantly, these “safety” measures usually contribute to bicycle crashes. Driver error substantially causes them. Many factors contributed to the beginning of World War II. Nazi Germany and Imperial Japanese aggression substantially caused it.

Auto insurance often doesn’t cover intentional bicycle collisions, such as extreme road rage bicycle collisions or revenge bicycle collisions.

The Insurance Settlement Process

Most bicycle accident insurance claims settle out of court. In fact, some cases settle before a Los Angeles personal injury lawyer files legal paperwork. However, this move is usually necessary, mostly to pressure the insurance company into settlement.

Once the insurance company knows the victim means business, more serious negotiations begin. At this point, some insurance companies fold faster than Superman on laundry day. Other insurance companies file procedural motions and create other settlement obstacles.

All these obstacles disappear during a mediation session. When a judge appoints a professional mediator, the mediator enforces a duty to negotiate in good faith. “My way or the highway” is not a good-faith negotiation posture. Instead, both sides must compromise, if that’s what it takes to reach an agreement and avoid a trial.

A favorable settlement is usually the best possible outcome in bicycle accident cases, mostly because a settlement is a final resolution. Instead of tying up a court verdict in appeals courts, when insurance companies settle bicycle accident cases, they write checks.

Consult Our Experienced Bicycle Accidents Lawyers!

Auto insurance covers most bicycle accident claims. For a free consultation with our Bicycle Accident Attorneys in Los Angeles, California, contact the Law Offices of Eslamboly Hakim. The sooner you reach out to us, the sooner we start working for you. No fees unless we win for you!

Credit: Photo by Midjourney