Long Beach Bicycle Accident Lawyer: What Injured Cyclists Should Know
Bicycle accidents in Long Beach can cause devastating injuries when cyclists are struck by cars, SUVs, trucks, buses, rideshare vehicles, or other motorists. Riders may also be seriously injured in bike-lane collisions, intersection crashes, dooring accidents, hit-and-runs, or collisions involving potentially dangerous roadway conditions.
Long Beach has developed an extensive bicycle network connecting Downtown, residential neighborhoods, commercial corridors, waterfront areas, and other parts of the city. Even where dedicated bicycle infrastructure exists, cyclists remain vulnerable anywhere bicycle and vehicle travel paths intersect.
DAG Law Firm, APC represents cyclists injured in serious bicycle and e-bike accidents in Long Beach and throughout California. You do not pay attorney fees unless we win your case. There are no upfront attorney fees for qualifying matters handled on a contingency-fee basis. Call (323) 930-2020 or contact DAG Law Firm today to discuss your Long Beach bicycle accident.
Bicycle Accidents In Long Beach Can Cause Serious Injuries
Long Beach streets are shared by cyclists, passenger vehicles, buses, rideshare drivers, delivery vehicles, commercial trucks, motorcycles, scooters, and pedestrians. Bicycle traffic can be found throughout Downtown Long Beach, residential neighborhoods, commercial districts, the waterfront, and other areas where riders regularly interact with motor vehicles.
A cyclist can suffer a serious injury even when damage to the motor vehicle appears relatively limited. Riders may be struck directly, thrown from the bicycle, pushed into another vehicle, or hit the pavement with significant force.
E-bike riders can face many of the same risks as traditional cyclists. Regardless of bicycle type, the circumstances of the collision, available evidence, injuries, and insurance coverage can become important when evaluating what happened.
Bike Lanes, Downtown And Long Beach Bicycle Corridors
Long Beach has made bicycle transportation a significant part of its mobility planning. The city’s bicycle network includes conventional lanes, protected bikeways, bicycle boulevards, recreational paths, and projects intended to improve connections between different parts of Long Beach.
Current improvements include the Orange Avenue Backbone Bikeway, which is intended to strengthen a north-south active transportation connection between Downtown Long Beach and North Long Beach. Downtown projects have also included improvements to protected bikeways along portions of 3rd Street and Broadway.
Bicycle infrastructure can reduce some traffic conflicts, but it does not eliminate them. Drivers may still cross bicycle lanes while turning, enter them near driveways, stop in bicycle travel areas, or fail to recognize an approaching rider.
Intersections are especially important because cyclists and vehicles may approach from different directions while drivers turn across bicycle travel paths.
Distracted Drivers And Unsafe Turns
A distracted driver may fail to notice a cyclist until there is very little time to react. Phones, navigation systems, rideshare applications, passengers, and other distractions can draw a driver’s attention away from the roadway.
A distracted-driving bicycle crash may involve a vehicle drifting into a bicycle lane, turning right across a cyclist’s path, turning left in front of an approaching rider, or striking a cyclist while entering or leaving a driveway.
Unsafe turns can also create disputes over right-of-way, traffic signals, bicycle positioning, visibility, and exactly where each person was immediately before the impact.
Surveillance footage, dashcam recordings, witness statements, vehicle damage, bicycle damage, and roadway evidence may help explain what occurred. Learn more about bicycle accidents caused by distracted drivers in California.
Dooring And Bike Lane Accidents
Long Beach cyclists frequently ride alongside parked or stopped vehicles. This creates the possibility that a driver or passenger will open a vehicle door into a cyclist’s path.
A dooring accident may involve a direct impact with the door, but a cyclist can also be injured while attempting to avoid it. A rider may fall, enter an adjacent traffic lane, or collide with another vehicle.
Dedicated bicycle facilities do not completely eliminate dooring and turning risks. The relationship between bike lanes, parking areas, intersections, driveways, and vehicle travel lanes can become important when reconstructing an accident.
Learn more about dooring bicycle accidents in California.
Hit-And-Run Bicycle Accidents In Long Beach
A hit-and-run can make a bicycle accident investigation significantly more difficult because the cyclist may initially have little information about the vehicle, driver, or available insurance.
Potential evidence may include surveillance footage, dashcam video, witness statements, vehicle descriptions, partial license plate information, debris, photographs, and information about where the vehicle traveled after the crash.
Long Beach’s commercial corridors, residences, apartment buildings, parking facilities, transit vehicles, and businesses may provide possible sources of video depending on where the collision occurred. Some recordings may be overwritten or deleted over time.
When the responsible driver cannot be identified, insurance issues may become more complicated. Depending on the circumstances and applicable policies, uninsured motorist coverage may become relevant. Learn more about hit-and-run bicycle accidents and California uninsured motorist claims.
Who May Be Liable For A Long Beach Bicycle Accident?
The driver whose conduct caused a collision may be responsible for a cyclist’s injuries, but some bicycle accidents involve additional people, companies, or entities.
Depending on the circumstances, questions may involve a vehicle owner, driver’s employer, rideshare company, trucking company, bus operator, another motorist, or a person who opened a vehicle door into the cyclist’s path. Accidents involving potentially dangerous public roadway conditions can create separate questions involving government entities and different procedures or deadlines.
California generally requires motorists passing cyclists traveling in the same direction to provide at least three feet of clearance. When another same-direction lane is available, a motorist generally must move into that lane before passing when doing so is practicable, safe, and lawful.
Those general rules do not determine responsibility automatically. Learn more about who may be liable in a California bicycle accident and California bicycle laws every cyclist should know.
Common Bicycle And E-Bike Accident Injuries
Cyclists can suffer injuries throughout the body when struck by a vehicle or thrown onto the roadway. Potential injuries include traumatic brain injuries, concussions, facial trauma, fractures, shoulder injuries, spinal injuries, hip and pelvic trauma, leg injuries, internal injuries, road rash, dental injuries, nerve damage, and scarring.
Some injured cyclists require surgery, hospitalization, physical therapy, rehabilitation, or continuing medical treatment. Serious injuries may also affect employment, mobility, independence, family responsibilities, and a person’s ability to return to cycling.
The severity of an injury cannot always be determined from the appearance of the bicycle or motor vehicle. Medical professionals can evaluate the person’s symptoms and determine what treatment may be appropriate.
Learn more about common injuries in California bicycle accident cases and DAG Law Firm’s brain injury practice.
What To Do And What Evidence May Help After A Bicycle Accident
Safety and appropriate medical attention generally come first after a serious bicycle collision. A cyclist should avoid remaining in an active traffic lane or putting themselves in additional danger simply to obtain photographs or evidence.
When circumstances make it safe, photographs of the bicycle, involved vehicles, bike-lane markings, intersection, traffic controls, debris, visible damage, and surrounding roadway may help document the scene. Witness information, police reports, surveillance footage, dashcam video, and other records can provide additional information.
The damaged bicycle, helmet, lights, clothing, electronics, and other equipment may also contain physical evidence. Those items should not automatically be repaired or discarded immediately after a serious collision.
Cycling-app, fitness-device, or GPS information may also be relevant in some cases. Learn more about what to do after a bicycle accident in California.
Compensation, Insurance And Bicycle Accident Deadlines
There is no standard settlement amount for a Long Beach bicycle accident. Potential case value can depend on injury severity, medical treatment, future care, lost income, reduced earning ability, permanent limitations, scarring, responsibility, available insurance, and other circumstances.
A serious bicycle crash may result in emergency medical expenses, surgery, rehabilitation, lost time from work, bicycle damage, and other losses. The physical effects of an injury may also affect daily activities and quality of life.
Learn more about how much a California bicycle accident case may be worth, medical bills after an accident, and pain and suffering damages.
Deadlines also depend on the circumstances. Accidents involving a government vehicle, transit agency, or allegedly dangerous public roadway can involve different and potentially much shorter procedures than an ordinary claim against a private driver. Cyclists should not assume one general deadline applies to every accident.
Learn more about California bicycle accident claim deadlines.
Resources And How DAG Law Firm Can Help
A Long Beach bicycle accident can raise questions about how the crash happened, who may be responsible, whether video exists, what insurance applies, what happened to the bicycle, and how the cyclist’s injuries have affected work and everyday life. Bike-lane collisions, distracted-driver crashes, dooring accidents, hit-and-runs, commercial-vehicle collisions, and accidents involving public road conditions may each require different evidence.
DAG Law Firm provides resources about what to do after a bicycle accident, bicycle accident liability, case value, common bicycle injuries, California bicycle laws, distracted-driver bicycle crashes, dooring accidents, hit-and-run bicycle accidents, and bicycle accident deadlines.
DAG Law Firm, APC represents cyclists injured in Long Beach and throughout California. Whether the collision happened Downtown, along a protected bikeway, near the waterfront, at an intersection, beside parked vehicles, or on another Long Beach street, the specific facts and available evidence matter.
You do not pay attorney fees unless we win your case. There are no upfront attorney fees for qualifying bicycle accident matters handled on a contingency-fee basis. Call (323) 930-2020 or contact DAG Law Firm today to discuss your Long Beach bicycle accident.
