The Most Common Bicycle Accident Causes

It is easy to brush off a bike crash as a minor incident until you learn the grim statistics behind bicycle accidents in the USA. According to the recent NHTSA report, almost 50K cyclists got injured while riding a bike in 2023, and as many as 1,166 people lost their lives cycling.

Not all cycling accidents happen because of inattentive or negligent drivers. Some collisions involve pedestrians, road defects, and even animals. That is why it is so important to learn everything there is about typical causes of biking accidents. The more you know, the easier it will be to avoid crashes as well as protect your legal rights in case of a collision.

Cyclist Collision Types

Crashes involving cars and cyclists happen unexpectedly, but they may not be random. There are a few common types of collisions, and riders familiar with each of them may be able to anticipate danger before it causes any serious harm.

Right Hook Collisions

A right hook accident occurs when a driver decides to turn right across a cyclist’s path and does not leave enough space for the rider. As the turning vehicle overtakes the lane, it may seriously or even fatally injure the bicyclist.

Among the major causes of such collisions is failure to check mirrors and blind spots. Busy intersections are the most typical locations of these crashes.

Left Cross/Left Hook Accidents

Left-hook accidents usually happen when a driver in oncoming traffic decides to make a left turn across the rider’s path, assuming that they will make it safely and on time. The leading underlying causes of such crashes are misjudged speed and the driver’s failure to yield. Since it is often a head-on impact, the injuries are correspondingly severe.

Dooring Accidents

Dooring bicycle accidents occur when the car door of the parked vehicle swings open and hits a bicyclist. Whether the cyclist is using a shared or a dedicated bike lane, such a move leaves them little time to react. They may be thrown into traffic and face secondary impact with moving vehicles, which can result in a fatal outcome. If hit in a bike lane, the rider may fall on the pavement, so that road rash, fractures, and spinal cord injuries are possible.

Rear-End Collisions

When another vehicle strikes a bicyclist from behind, the bicyclist is rear-ended. Accidents like that typically happen because of the lack of a safe following distance. Usually, distracted driving, speeding, or limited visibility affects the driver’s ability to assess the distance between themselves and a bike in front. Such incidents can be very traumatic to a rider, who absorbs the full force of the hit.

Sideswipe Accidents

When a car passes a cyclist on the street, it has to maintain a safe passing distance and avoid lane encroachment. Many states in the country have adopted a law, which determines that three feet between a car and a rider is a ‘safe’ distance. However, when a driver moves too close to the cyclist, they can clip the rider with mirrors or the side of the car, so that the latter loses their balance and falls to the ground or gets under the wheels of the oncoming traffic.

Intersection Collisions

Many car vs. bicycle accidents take place at intersections and include a right-of-way or a red light violation. When a driver ignores a stop sign or a traffic signal, the outcome for a bicyclist may be fatal.

Road Hazards and Environmental Accidents

A road defect that is barely even noticed by a driver, be it a shallow pothole, loose gravel, or cracked pavement, can lead to serious injuries. All because uneven surfaces have a direct impact on bicycle balance.

Road defect bicycle accidents are quite common. Cyclists may encounter sunken drainage grates that can catch the front wheel and send them over the handlebars. Construction zones filled with debris may lead to unsafe swerving maneuvers and, as a result, severe accidents. Areas with poor lighting may cause cyclists to miss potholes and other road defects a second too late to avoid them.

What many bicyclists do not know is that these dangers aren’t random. They are a natural outcome of poor road maintenance. This means there are parties, for example, a local municipality, to hold accountable after getting into poor road maintenance bike accidents.

However, before you decide to file a claim against the governmental entity for a, let’s say, pothole-related bicycle crash, you need to make sure the authorities have been alerted about the hazardous environment, yet failed to tend to the issue. This means local citizens must be conscious enough toreport dangerous road conditions for cyclists once they see them. If there have been no reports, you may not be able to recover your damages.

Bicycle Accident Scenarios

Motor vehicle collisions and hazardous road conditions are the most common types of biking incidents. However, there are also less obvious scenarios you need to be aware of. Hit-and-run bicycle accidents, bicycle crashes caused by loose dogs, or bike vs. pedestrian collisions can be as severe.

Hit-and-Run Accidents

There are countless accounts of drivers fleeing bicycle crash scenes and leaving cyclists injured in the middle of the road or at the curb. The victims have to rely on witnesses, traffic camera footage, or their own memory to identify the negligent party. Often, such accident claims turn into unsolved bicycle hit-and-run cases, and the only insurance option left for a rider is Uninsured Motorist coverage, which isn’t mandatory in all states.

Bicycle-Pedestrian Collisions

Pedestrian and bicyclist accidents may not be as frequent, but the chance of a collision remains, especially when both parties share the same lane, like a sidewalk. This is one of those scenarios where a rider may be at fault for the crash, as violation of a pedestrian’s right-of-way regulations is one of the major causes of such incidents.

Bike-on-Bike Crashes

Two bicyclists can collide just as easily as two cars. When both riders travel in opposite directions, but the lane they share is too tight, a sudden, even the slightest, swerve can result in a crash.

Animal/Dog Chase Incidents

Dog attacks bicycle accidents happen when an animal starts chasing the cyclist. When the rider increases speed to get away from the dog, their awareness of surroundings decreases, which can lead to a traumatic fall or a serious collision with something or someone else. At the same time, cyclist injuries caused by dog attacks, such as lower extremity bites, take time to heal and can even cause severe infections if not treated on time.

Group Riding Accidents

Group accidents can lead to multiple injuries due to the domino effect. That is, after one cyclist hits a pedestrian or brakes without warning, the rest of the group collide with each other and end up on the ground. Pack dynamics, combined with close spaces, can result in potentially unforgiving outcomes. Proper communication through hand signals is key here.

Common Causes of Bicycle Crashes

One of the most typical explanations the other involved party can give the police is that the rider came out of nowhere and became the cause of the accident. However, when a law-abiding rider gets hit, there are usually three main reasons behind the collision:

Driver Behavior

One of the most common causes of a bike crash is that the motor vehicle leaves a bicyclist no time to react and avoid a collision:

At the core of each of these actions lies personal negligence that results in other people’s losses. However, the law does not discard responsibility because the mistake was brief or unintentional.

Traffic Violations

When either party fails to follow basic traffic rules, accidents occur. Failure to yield at intersections, improper turns, and running red lights can result in a serious crash.

Environmental Factors

Biking crashes do not only involve direct human error, such as speeding or road rage. Unfavorable weather, debris on the road, and insufficient lighting can also lead to an accident, because the bicycle is difficult to control or the obstacle remains invisible until it is too late.

Many accidents stem from reckless behavior, including but not limited to impaired, fatigued, aggressive, or distracted driving or blind spot negligence. This means that together with such behavior, the crashes can also be avoided.

Common Injuries from Bicycle Crashes

Bicyclists do not have tons of steel, airbags, and other safety features to protect them in the event of an accident. The impact of the crash goes directly to the rider. The force of the collision, which often depends on the speed and size of the object involved, dictates the severity of the potential trauma.

Road Rash

When a cyclist slides on the ground, it results in soft tissue injuries, known as road rash. These wounds can heal relatively fast if properly cleaned and maintained. In other cases, they may become infected, which can lead to serious complications. Facial injuries of such nature can leave permanent scarring, which can be emotionally traumatic for the victim.

Fractures

A broken arm, ribs, or wrist can be the consequence of instinctive bracing. Leg and collarbone fractures are also quite common and take even more time to heal. Injuries like shoulder dislocations can result in chronic pain affecting the rider’s ability to perform everyday tasks long after the crash.

Head Trauma

Head injuries can be severe if not detected on time and professionally treated. A bicyclist who hits their head can sustain a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), concussion, or skull fracture, which can have a lasting, if not permanent, effect on their future life quality. Wearing a protective helmet can reduce the impact but not fully eliminate the risk of injury.

Back Injuries and Internal Organ Damage

Spinal cord injuries, whiplash, and internal injuries are among the most serious outcomes of a cycling accident. Some of these traumas can lead to such severe conditions as permanent paralysis and even death. Others result in limited mobility or chronic pain.

Who Is Liable In a Bicycle Accident?

The liability in a bike crash isn’t as clear as either party may assume. Usually, it takes time to gather evidence and prove that someone failed to act with due care and that their negligence directly caused another person’s losses. Among the most common liable parties in biking accidents are:

Negligent Drivers

All distracted drivingbicycle accidents happen because of a negligent driver. So do dooring crashes in bike lanes and even road rage bicycle accidents. A driver has a duty to drive safely, and instances like that are direct proof of a breach of duty of care, which allows a personal injury victim to hold them liable.

Government Entities

Injured cyclists can hold local municipalities accountable after getting into an accident because of a pothole, poorly marked lane, missing traffic sign, or debris on the road. However, cases like this are a bit complicated, as the government entity needs to have been informed about dangerous road conditions and ignored the matter.

Bicycle/Product Manufacturers

Sometimes, there may be no road defect, vehicle, or other cyclist to collide with, yet a crash happens. In these cases, the bicycle malfunction may be at fault. Thus, you can hold the manufacturer accountable for your injuries or damages sustained in the accident. However, there’s an important nuance here — you need to prove that the bicycle was defective when you got it.

Comparative Negligence Explained

Usually, a liable party is defined through fault determination. However, in multiple instances, the third party isn’t the only contributor to an accident. Bicyclists make mistakes, too.

In such cases, the rule of comparative negligence applies. The primary aim of this regulation is to ensure that an injured rider receives fair compensation for their losses, with the percentage of contribution deducted from the final amount. Different states have different rules that bar injured cyclists from their right to claim a financial recovery of the sustained damages if they contributed to the accident above the state-approved percentage.

Compensation for Bicycle Accident Victims

After an accident, injured cyclists often face multiple expenses, which range from immediate medical expenses to property damage, lost wages, and emotional distress. A timely personal injury claim allows the victim to regain their financial stability, because an average settlement includes economic and non-economic losses of the claimant.

Economic damages category covers immediate and future medical costs, lost earning capacity, and other monetary damages. Non-economic damages include the intangible losses of the injured party and their families, such as pain and suffering, loss of joy in life, and mental distress.

How Can a Bicycle Accident Attorney Help?

Many bike accident victims assume that an attorney is only good for filling out paperwork. In reality, a qualified personal injury lawyer can help with case investigation, insurance negotiations, and litigation. This means that if the claim requires additional evidence gathering, your legal representative will find the missing pieces that make the case solid.

In case an insurance company is trying to convince you to accept a lowball offer, they will deflect it. Also, if the initial negotiations fail but you have a strong claim, your lawyer will prepare the case for trial and defend your rights there.

You may be unsure where you are standing with your claim and whether pursuing it is worth the effort. Law firms like Bicycle Accident Lawyers Group understand the matter and offer a free consultation for every client, no strings attached.

We work on a contingency fee basis, so that you don’t have to pay any upfront service fees until we achieve the best possible case result. Book a free case consultation to learn more about your legal options!

Posted by Robert Goldwater

Since his academic days at the UC Berkeley School of Law, Robert Goldwater has remained a committed advocate for victims of other people’s negligence. His tort law background, together with his unquenchable thirst for justice, helped young Robert found a now-successful law firm – Bicycle Accident Lawyers Group, gathering same-minded and promising attorneys from all over the country.

All articles by Robert Goldwater