Bicycle Accident Liability Basics To Know

Bicycle riding can be an awesome healthy pastime that is enjoyed by people of practically all ages. The problem is that you can so easily end up being hurt in the event you are involved in an accident. Serious injuries can appear and you will surely want help from Regan Zambri Long injury lawyers. Why Is that?

Bicycle Accident Risks

As you can easily imagine, bicycle accidents pose a huge risk for anyone involved. This is especially true for children. CDC stats show that around 500,000 US citizens are injured in bicycle crashes every year. And over 33% of those ending up in the hospital because of nonfatal injuries are younger than 20.

Basically, children should never be on the streets if they are young. Such cyclists are immature and cannot remain safe since they lack the necessary decision-making capabilities.

Helmet Laws

The big problem is that safety gear is not always mandatory according to the law. As an example, in Washington, young people can actually ride bikes without using helmets. It is only in some counties and cities that this is mandatory. In other states, like Virginia, anyone under a specific age needs to wear the helmet when riding.

Unfortunately, helmet laws are not always enforced. Even when they are, children might decide to avoid wearing them.

After The Bicycling Accident

Bicycle accidents always seem simple but they can quickly become really complex. For instance, the court might decide the fact that the bike rider had some fault in the collision. As an example, the cyclist did not properly use the bike lane or was involved in unsafe behavior, like racing. Such situations mean the bike rider is partially at fault and can only receive a percentage of the sought damages in the lawsuit.

The big problem is with children since they might not be recognized legally as capable of managing personal safety. Basically, they simply cannot be considered responsible for negligent behaviors. The required age to not be considered negligent does vary from one state to the next.

It is possible that parents could be liable because of their negligence. For instance, let’s think about the parent that lets the child ride the bike in a very busy traffic area. When the child is injured and the motorist did all that was possible to avoid them, it is the parent that could be liable.

Takeaways

Most bike accidents involving adults are pretty straightforward. Liability is very easy to determine and you can easily file personal injury claims if the driver was at fault. This would cover all damages and medical expenses that appeared because of the accident. However, if children are involved, the case quickly becomes more complicated.

At the end of the day, the best thing you can do when you want to file any personal injury claim because of a bicycle accident is to contact an experienced personal injury attorney. This will give you the help you need to be sure you are successful as you file the injury claim.