Personal Injury Law

Bicycle Accidents - How to Avoid Them - Common Causes of Bike Accidents Resulting in Injury or Death

By Benjamin J. Sansone, Esq.

As a St Louis Missouri personal injury attorney I speak to dozens of bikers that are hit by cars. In most cases, injured bicyclists are the victims of driver inattention, which causes or allows the motorist to strike the bicyclists and cause a bicycle accident. The primary cause of bicyclists being hit by cars, driver inattention. In my experience as a personal injury lawyer, the most critical injuries occur when a motorists underestimates a bicyclist's speed, over takes them, and then makes a right turn directly in front of the bicyclist, thus causing a collision. The results are often severe injuries to the bicyclist. In most cases I handle, the bicyclist suffers from broken bones, road rash, multiple bruises, and lacerations.

This type of bike accident or injury is often referred to as the "The Right Hook" (see diagram). It is very common and i am currently representing two Missouri bike accident victims that were injured as a result of this very type of action by a driver. In both cases, the driver swears they never saw the bike or the cyclist or that they passed them and made an extra wide turn, but someone they still cut the off. Fact of the matter is, motorist often are hostile to cyclists and do not respect their own duty to share the road.

The "RIGHT HOOK" - Bike Accident

Bicycle Safety - Top 10 Most Common Causes of Bike Accidents

Bicycling Safety Tips - Be Predictable to Avoid an Accident and Injury

Bicycle Crash Statistics - Bicycle Almanac

Full post as published by Missouri Injury Law Blog on December 20, 2007 (boomark / email).