California Pedestrian and Bicycle Accident Lawyers

If a driver hit you while you were walking, biking, or riding an e-bike in California, you can claim your medical bills, lost income, and pain and suffering from that driver's insurance.

When the driver had no insurance, too little, or drove away, your own auto policy's uninsured motorist coverage can pay, even though you were not in a car.

California's pure comparative fault rule means a share of the blame reduces your recovery without ending it.

California recorded 1,090 pedestrian deaths and 163 bicyclist deaths in 2024.

The general deadline is two years, shortened to six months for a claim against a city when a street or signal played a part.

If you or someone in your family was hit on foot or on a bike, call (888) 713-6653 with your questions about the claim.

California has had more pedestrian deaths than any other state in each of the last two federal counts.^[1] The figures below come from NHTSA's Fatality Analysis Reporting System, except where another source is named.

Pedestrians made up 28.1 percent of everyone killed on California roads in 2024. In 2025, according to LAPD data reported by LAist, more than 150 of the fatal collisions in the City of Los Angeles involved pedestrians.

Behind those deaths are thousands of people living with fractures, brain injuries, and spinal injuries from crashes where they had no steel around them.

Drivers must yield to pedestrians in marked and unmarked crosswalks under Vehicle Code § 21950 and must use due care even when a pedestrian crosses elsewhere, as our page on California pedestrian right-of-way rules explains in detail. Most claims fit one of a handful of patterns.

Turning drivers in a crosswalk

A driver turning left watches for oncoming cars, or a driver turning right on red looks left for traffic, and neither sees the person walking with the signal. These are among the clearest liability cases.

Right hooks and left crosses

A driver passes a cyclist and turns right across the bike's path, or turns left in front of an oncoming rider. The cyclist had the lane and the right of way.

Dooring

Vehicle Code § 22517 says "no person shall open the door of a vehicle on the side available to moving traffic unless it is reasonably safe to do so." A parked driver or a rideshare passenger who flings a door into a bike lane can be liable for the crash it causes.

Unsafe passing

A driver who squeezes past a cyclist with less than three feet of clearance, or clips a rider with a mirror, violates § 21760.

Hit-and-run drivers

A driver who leaves the scene is committing a crime, and the injured person's own uninsured motorist coverage usually becomes the main source of payment.

Video from businesses, buses, and doorbells, and the car's own event data recorder, are what fix positions and speed when the driver's account differs from yours.

Under Vehicle Code § 21760, a driver may not pass a cyclist going the same direction "at a distance of less than three feet." Since 2023, a driver must also change lanes to pass when another lane in the same direction is available and it is practicable, and a driver who cannot give three feet has to slow down and wait until passing is safe.^[2] The fine rises from $35 to $220 when the pass injures the cyclist.

Cyclists have rules too, and insurers lean on them. Section 21202 tells a slower cyclist to ride as close as practicable to the right edge, but with exceptions for passing, preparing to turn left, avoiding hazards, and a lane too narrow to share safely with a car. Section 21208 requires using a bike lane where one exists, with similar exceptions.

• A cyclist in the middle of a narrow lane is often following the law, not breaking it
• A cyclist who leaves a bike lane to avoid glass, a parked car, or a turning vehicle is within the exceptions
• A driver's violation of § 21760 can create a presumption of negligence under Evidence Code § 669

When an adjuster says the rider "came out of the bike lane," the exceptions in § 21202 and § 21208 are usually where the answer is.

California sorts e-bikes into three classes under Vehicle Code § 312.5. Class 1 bikes assist only while pedaling, up to 20 miles per hour. Class 2 bikes have a throttle that stops helping at 20 miles per hour. Class 3 bikes assist pedaling up to 28 miles per hour and must have a speedometer. A bike modified to go faster on motor power alone, or with more than 750 watts, is not an e-bike under the statute.

• Helmets: required for riders under 18 on any bicycle, and for every rider and passenger on a class 3 e-bike under §§ 21212 and 21213
• Age: no one under 16 may operate a class 3 e-bike
• Since January 1, 2026: e-bikes need a rear red reflector or light at all hours (AB 544), apps that raise an e-bike's speed past the legal limits cannot be sold (AB 545), and batteries sold in California must be lab-certified (SB 1271)
• Coming January 1, 2027: SB 1167 changes the e-bike definitions, and AB 2346 sets a 10 mile-per-hour sidewalk speed limit

Not wearing a helmet can come up in a claim. No published California appellate decision has addressed it for cyclists, and under the closest analogy, the seat belt cases, the defense would carry the burden of proving with expert testimony which injuries a helmet would have prevented. Adults on ordinary bikes and class 1 or 2 e-bikes have no helmet requirement at all.

The class of the e-bike, and whether it was modified, can affect both the fault analysis and which insurance applies, so keep the bike in its post-crash condition.

Motorized scooter riders follow Vehicle Code § 21235: a valid license or permit, a helmet under 18, no riding on sidewalks, and roads posted at 25 miles per hour or less unless a city allows 35, with a 15 mile-per-hour top speed. A rider hit by a car has a claim against the driver like any cyclist.

A scooter left in the wrong place can injure a pedestrian too. In Hacala v. Bird Rides, Inc. (2023), a court of appeal held that Bird owed a duty to locate and move a scooter that posed an unreasonable risk of harm, while the City of Los Angeles was immune from claims that it failed to enforce its permit terms.

Civil Code § 2505 requires shared-scooter companies to carry liability insurance of at least $1,000,000 per occurrence and $5,000,000 in the aggregate, and it bars rental terms that make the rider cover the company's own negligence.

Photographs of where the scooter was lying, and the scooter's ID number, are what connect a fall to the company responsible for it.

Many people do not realize their car insurance protects them when they are not driving. Uninsured motorist coverage, included in every California auto policy unless it was rejected in writing, pays when the driver who hit you had no insurance. Underinsured coverage pays the gap when the driver's policy is too small, and medical payments coverage, if you carry it, can pay early bills regardless of fault.

Minimum liability limits in California rose to $30,000 per person for policies issued or renewed since January 1, 2025, which is far less than a serious pedestrian injury costs.

A hit-and-run claim has added requirements: physical contact between the car and you, a police report within 24 hours, and a sworn statement to your insurer within 30 days. Our page on uninsured motorist claims after a hit-and-run explains each one and the two-year deadline for the claim itself.

Checking your own declarations page, and the policies of anyone in your household, is often the step that finds the money in a pedestrian or bike case.

A pedestrian or cyclist claim is worth the full cost of the injuries, reduced by any share of fault assigned to you, and in practice limited by the insurance available.

• Medical care, from the trauma center through surgery, rehabilitation, and future treatment
• Lost income and earning capacity, especially after fractures, brain injuries, or spinal injuries
• Pain, suffering, and loss of enjoyment of life, with no cap in a claim against a driver
• Property, including a damaged bike or e-bike and gear

Pedestrian and bike injuries tend to be more serious than injuries to people inside a car, so the driver's minimum policy often runs out quickly and your own underinsured coverage, any commercial policy behind the driver, and any public entity that shares fault become part of the valuation.

Every percentage point of fault the insurer moves onto you comes off the recovery, which is why the evidence about speed, signals, and sight lines carries so much weight.

A lawsuit against the driver must generally be filed within two years under Code of Civil Procedure § 335.1.^[4] Other deadlines can run faster.

• Six months for a written claim against a city, county, or Caltrans when a dangerous street, missing crosswalk, broken signal, or city vehicle was involved
• 24 hours to report a hit-and-run to police for an uninsured motorist claim
• Two years to settle, sue on, or demand arbitration of an uninsured motorist claim

A public entity can be liable for a dangerous condition of its property, such as a poorly timed signal or a crosswalk hidden by overgrown landscaping, as our page on claims against California public entities explains.

The six-month government claim is the deadline people most often miss after a pedestrian or bike crash, because nobody thinks of the street itself as a defendant.