Bicycle Accident Lawyers

A driver who hits you while you are riding owes you compensation under the same negligence law that governs a crash between two cars.

The driver's liability insurance pays first, and your own auto policy may add coverage even though you were on a bike that day.

The questions an insurer argues about are where you were riding, whether the driver had time to react, and how your state divides fault.

Expect the driver's insurer to look for a reason to blame you, and the usual candidates are your lane position, your helmet, the stop sign, and your clothing.

The evidence that answers those arguments, from your bike computer's ride file to the bends in the frame, has to be kept before anyone repairs or throws it away.

Lawsuit Legal takes bicycle accident cases on contingency, so you pay no fee unless we recover money for you.

Call (888) 713-6653 for a free review of your crash, at any hour.

Bicycle crashes with cars repeat a handful of shapes, and each shape puts the duty on the driver in a particular way. Naming the shape early tells you which evidence matters and which argument the insurer is going to make.

NHTSA counted 1,103 cyclists killed on U.S. roads in 2024 and estimates that 52,887 more were injured. Eighty-one percent of the deaths happened in urban areas, and 30 percent happened at intersections, where turning drivers and riders cross paths. NHTSA's count has included e-bike riders since 2022.^[1]

The Right Hook

A driver passes a rider and then turns right across the bike's path, into a driveway, a parking lot, or the next side street. The driver had the cyclist in view seconds before the turn, which makes it hard to claim the bike came from nowhere. Large trucks produce the deadliest version, because a trailer's rear wheels track inside the cab on a right turn, and our page on trucks that squeeze a rider on a wide right turn covers that side of it.

The Left Cross

An oncoming driver turns left across the rider's lane. A turning driver has to yield to oncoming traffic, and a bicycle in the lane is oncoming traffic. When the driver's defense is that the bike was moving faster than it looked, the speed recorded on the rider's bike computer can answer it.

The Close Pass and Sideswipe

A driver overtakes with too little room, clips the rider with a mirror or a fender, or forces the bike off the edge of the pavement. Many states set a minimum passing distance, covered in the table below, and a driver who passed closer than the law allows has broken a rule written for exactly this crash.

Dooring

A parked driver or passenger opens a door into the bike lane or the travel lane, and the rider has nowhere to go. Most state traffic codes bar opening a door on the traffic side unless it can be done safely, which puts the duty on the person inside the car. New York's version of that rule, and how it plays out for a rider, are covered on our page about cyclists doored in New York City.

The Rear-End Strike

A driver coming up behind the rider fails to slow, most dangerously at dusk or on a rural road with no shoulder. Fault in a rear-end crash generally starts with the following driver, who had the rider ahead in plain view. The insurer's argument usually moves to lights and reflectors, so photographs of the bike as it lay at the scene, with whatever lights it carried, are worth taking before anything is moved.

Stop Signs and Intersections

Two road users arrive at the same intersection and one of them does not yield. These cases turn on the right-of-way rules, the signal timing, and in a growing number of states a stop-as-yield law that lets a cyclist slow and yield at a stop sign instead of coming to a full stop.

A cyclist's claim runs on state law, and the rules that move a bicycle case the most are the ones that differ from one state to the next. State traffic codes generally give a person riding on the road the rights and duties of a driver, along with rules written for bikes alone. South Carolina's § 56-5-3420 is a typical example of that structure.

How Fault Rules Divide the Recovery

In the four contributory negligence states, a jury that puts even a small share of blame on the rider can end the claim. The District of Columbia changed that for cyclists, pedestrians, motorcyclists, and scooter riders. Under D.C. Code § 50-2204.52, a "vulnerable user" can still recover unless their own negligence is greater than the combined negligence of everyone they sued.^[2] Our page on the District's exception for riders and walkers explains how it works.

Most of the country reduces the award by the rider's share instead. A state that bars recovery at 50 percent and a state that bars it at 51 percent produce different results in a case the jury sees as an even split, and our state-by-state comparison of fault rules lists the version each state uses. California applies pure comparative fault, so a rider found partly to blame still collects the rest, a rule worked through for riders there on our page about California pedestrian and bicycle claims.

Passing Laws and Helmet Arguments

A passing-distance law gives a close-pass claim a measurable standard. Arizona's three-foot rule in A.R.S. § 28-735 is one, and how drivers there get held to it is on our page for cyclists hit in Arizona.

No state requires adult cyclists to wear a helmet statewide. Twenty-one states and the District require helmets for young riders, with age cutoffs from 11 to 17.^[3] Some states bar using a missing helmet against an injured rider, mostly through those youth helmet laws: New York's Vehicle and Traffic Law § 1238(7) and Oregon's ORS 814.489 are two, and Pennsylvania's statute has similar language. Courts elsewhere have allowed the argument, including a federal court in New Jersey in 2002.

Even where the argument is allowed, a helmet has nothing to say about a shattered wrist or a broken pelvis. The defense has to tie the missing helmet to a specific head injury, usually through a medical expert, and the rest of the claim stands either way.

Stop-as-Yield States

South Carolina's 2026 law lets a rider slow and yield at a stop sign and, after a full stop at a red light, proceed when it is safe.^[4] In a state with that rule, an insurer cannot treat a rolling stop at a stop sign as a traffic violation. The state's other rules for drivers sharing the road are covered on our page for riders injured in South Carolina.

The at-fault driver's bodily injury liability coverage is the main source of payment, up to the limits the driver bought. Several other policies can sit behind it, and finding all of them early is what keeps a serious injury from being capped at a minimum-limits policy.

Your Own Uninsured and Underinsured Motorist Coverage

Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage on your own auto policy often follows the person rather than the car, so it can pay when a driver with no insurance, or too little, hits you on a bike. The Illinois Supreme Court held in Galarza v. Direct Auto Insurance (2023) that an insurer cannot limit that coverage to people riding inside a vehicle.

Policy wording and state law still decide the answer. Some policies try to restrict the coverage to occupants, some states require physical contact with the other vehicle in a hit-and-run, and a rider with no car in the household may have no auto policy of their own, though a relative's policy in the same home sometimes covers them. Our page on uninsured and underinsured motorist claims explains how those claims are made.

PIP in No-Fault States

In no-fault states, personal injury protection pays medical bills and part of lost income regardless of who caused the crash. Florida, New York, and New Jersey each extend it to a person struck by a car while not riding in one, and each state has its own rules on whose policy pays first.

MedPay and Health Insurance

Medical payments coverage on your own policy, where you carry it, pays medical bills up to a set amount, and some policies extend it to an insured hurt while cycling. Health insurance pays treatment now, but most plans claim reimbursement from the settlement later, and negotiating that lien is part of what decides how much of the recovery you keep.

Read the uninsured motorist section of your policy before you give a statement to your own insurer, because that page decides whether a second policy is in your case.

A bicycle claim is won by placing the bike on the road at the moment of impact: its lane position, its speed, and what the driver could see.

The Ride File

Many riders run a bike computer or a ride app such as Strava, Garmin Connect, or Wahoo. The ride file records position and speed at short intervals, which can show how fast the rider was going before the impact, the line taken through the intersection, and whether the bike stopped at the sign. Export the file and keep the original, because an edited or cropped ride invites a fight over whether it was changed.

We ask every injured cyclist what was recording that day: a bike computer, a phone app, a helmet camera, a rear light with a lens. A rider often carries better proof of the crash than any camera on the street.

Cameras on the Rider and on the Street

Helmet cameras, handlebar cameras, and rear-facing camera lights record the crash from the rider's own position. Off the bike, intersection cameras, business security systems, doorbell cameras, and other drivers' dashcams often captured the impact, and most of that footage is recorded over on a set cycle unless someone asks for it to be preserved.

The Bike, the Car, and the Driver's Phone

Paint transfer, a bent fork or wheel, and scrapes along the frame show the angle of impact, and a reconstruction expert can match that damage to the marks on the car. A cracked helmet shows where the head struck. The driver's phone records can show calls, texts, or app use in the minutes before the crash, and they come through a formal request in the claim or the lawsuit.

Keeping those items costs nothing, and without them the driver's account may be the only version of the crash on file.

A rider struck by a car is thrown onto the hood, the windshield, or the pavement, and the injuries follow the fall.

• Head and brain injuries. Concussions and brain bleeds happen to helmeted riders too, because a helmet protects the skull while the brain can still strike the inside of it.
• Collarbone and shoulder fractures. A rider who lands on the shoulder often breaks the clavicle or separates the joint, and some of those breaks need plates and screws.
• Wrist and hand fractures. A rider catches the fall with an open hand, and a scaphoid fracture in the wrist can be missed on the first X-ray.
• Pelvis, hip, and leg fractures. A bumper meets a rider at the hip and knee, which is how a side impact breaks the pelvis or the femur.
• Road rash and degloving. Skin torn away by the pavement can need grafts and leave scars that are part of the claim.
• Spinal injuries. A fall from a bike at road speed can fracture vertebrae or injure the spinal cord.

Head injuries are easy to underestimate in the first week. A rider who was talking at the scene can still have a concussion that shows up as headaches, trouble concentrating, or changes in mood, and our page on concussion claims after a crash explains how those claims are proven. When a crash causes a more serious brain injury, the claim joins the work our traumatic brain injury attorneys do on the most serious cases.

Keep every follow-up appointment and imaging order. A wrist fracture or a slow brain bleed found two weeks later is still a crash injury, and the chart that catches it is what ties it back to the day you were hit.

A bicycle accident claim is worth what the injury costs you, measured against how clearly the driver was at fault and how much insurance stands behind the driver. There is no honest average, because a sprained wrist and a fractured pelvis are different cases.

The factors are consistent from case to case:

• Medical bills to date and the care your doctors project
• Income lost while you recover, and earning capacity lost if you cannot return to the same work
• Pain, limitation, and scarring, and whether they are permanent
• The share of fault, if any, the evidence puts on you
• Every policy available to pay: the driver's, your underinsured motorist coverage, and a business policy if the driver was working

The last factor sets the practical ceiling. A serious injury against a minimum-limits policy is limited by the policy unless another one is found, which is why the coverage search starts in the first weeks and why a driver who was on the clock for a delivery company or an employer matters so much. Health plan and provider liens then come out of the recovery, and how they are negotiated changes the amount you keep. Our overview of the factors that set an injury claim's value walks through each one in more detail.

Every state sets a statute of limitations for injury claims, most often two years from the crash, with the full range running from one to six years. Our list of each state's injury filing deadline shows where yours falls.

A shorter clock applies when the government is involved. If a city bus, a garbage truck, or a police car hit you, or a pothole or broken pavement caused the crash, the claim usually needs a written notice to the government first, sometimes within a few months of the crash. The notice rules for claims against a city or state vary widely and are strict.

Evidence runs on a faster clock than either deadline. Street and business cameras record over their footage on a cycle, and the bike, the ride file, and witness memories are easiest to secure in the first days.

A missed notice deadline against a city can end a claim that was strong on the facts, so who owned the vehicle or the road is the first thing to pin down.

Federal law treats a bike with working pedals, a motor under 750 watts, and a motor-only top speed under 20 miles per hour as a consumer product, and most states sort e-bikes into classes by speed and how the motor engages. A faster or more powerful machine can count as a moped or motor vehicle under state law, which brings registration and insurance rules that change both the fault arguments and the coverage.

The coverage questions get harder too. Homeowners policies commonly exclude motorized vehicles, auto policies are written around cars, and a rented scooter comes with an app agreement that sends disputes to arbitration. Our page on e-bike and electric scooter accident claims covers those claims, from the rental company to the manufacturer.