Los Angeles Bicycle Accident Lawyers

California car culture is famous, and, unfortunately, doesn’t always leave a lot of room for bicycle safety. The California Department of Motor Vehicles estimates that over 100 bicyclists are killed and 10,000 are injured each year in the state. This is almost certainly an underestimate, since bike riding accounts for more than 31,000 emergency department visits a year. 

UC Berkeley’s Transportation Industry Mapping System (TIMS) counted 203 bike accident fatalities in 2024. In the TIMS counts, Los Angeles County accounted for more than 10% of all bike accident fatalities, about as many as Sacramento and San Diego combined. 

In bike accidents, bicyclists account for more than 95% of those hurt or killed. However, the majority of accidents are caused by vehicle drivers. If you were hurt or lost a loved one in a bicycle accident that was entirely or mostly the fault of a car driver, you deserve compensation. 

At Fisher & Talwar, we are prepared to stand up for your rights and get you the compensation you deserve. Contact us today. We offer a free initial consultation that is completely confidential and comes with no obligations. Get your questions answered for free, whether you decide to work with us or not.

Compensation Available for Bicycle Accidents

Ideally, you should be compensated for all injuries and damages sustained in your accident. This can include:

• Damage to your bike, clothing, and equipment
• Missed work, including lost wages, diminished earning ability, and spent PTO
• Medical expenses (current and expected)
• Permanent injuries like scarring, wounds that won’t fully heal, and disability
• Aggravation of a previous injury
• Pain, suffering, and trauma
• Diminished quality of life
• Loss of a loved one

Economic damages such as a damaged bike, lost wages, and medical expenses are relatively easy to calculate. However, an experienced bike lawyer understands how to factor in non-economic damages, such as pain, suffering, and the loss of a loved one. This can be important in making sure you get full compensation for your injuries. 

California’s Comparative Liability Laws

Although you are entitled to compensation for all your damages, California’s comparative liability laws mean that you might not get paid 100% for all damages. Under comparative liability, you can seek compensation from others even if you are 99% responsible for your own injuries. However, the compensation you receive will be diminished by the amount that you’re responsible for. 

For example, if the court determined that you and a driver were each 50% responsible for an accident, then the driver would be expected to pay 50% of the cost of your injuries, and you would be expected to pay 50% of their injuries, if any. This is why it’s important to control your language at the accident site. If you make a statement that implies that you didn’t see the car or that you were bicycling angrily, it might make you seem more responsible, which can significantly reduce your compensation.

Although comparative liability only strictly matters in court, people and insurers will factor this into settlement offers.

Proving Negligence After a Bike Accident

Who pays compensation after a bike accident is determined by people who have a contractual obligation to pay you (like your insurance company), as well as those who are negligent in an accident. Proving negligence requires establishing four elements:

• Duty: Duty means that an individual or other entity has a responsibility to consider your safety and act to safeguard it. By law, people operating vehicles in California–including bicycles–have a duty to consider the safety of others.
• Breach: This means that a person didn’t fulfill their duty to consider your safety. They put you at risk either through their actions or their inactions. 
• Causation: This means linking your injuries to a person’s breach. For example, a person who didn’t brake at a stop sign and hit you caused all the injuries resulting from the impact and subsequent events. 
• Damages: These are all the impacts of the accident that cost you in some way. It can include economic damages, such as medical bills and lost wages, as well as non-economic damages, including pain, suffering, and a reduced quality of life. In rare cases, punitive damages might be added to punish a driver or others responsible for an accident.

As with comparative liability, proving negligence only technically matters in court. However, all parties will consider these factors in making settlement offers. For example, you would get higher settlement offers if the driver was cited for a specific breach (like running a stop sign) than you would if the driver’s insurance didn’t think there was a breach.

Common Injuries Associated with Bicycle Accidents

The amount of compensation you receive after a bike accident depends significantly on the type of injuries you sustained. Some of the most common injuries from a bike crash include:

• Road rash, severe cuts, and severe lacerations: These injuries can damage major portions of your skin. These can be painful, may lead to serious infections, and might turn into permanent scars. 
• Broken bones and fractures: These breaks are often severe and may take significant care to heal properly. If they don’t heal properly, they can result in ongoing disabilities and discomfort. 
• Musculoskeletal injuries: These can include muscle and tendon sprains, joint dislocations, and sometimes even damaged or destroyed muscles, ligaments, and tendons. These can lead to ongoing disabilities. 
• Abdominal injuries: Ruptured spleen, other damaged organs, internal bleeding, and hernias can be very serious injuries. They can sometimes lead to death and may require long-term treatment for successful recovery. Even successful recovery might come with permanent impacts to your health and life. 
• Face and eye injuries: Contusions, broken facial bones, and fractured teeth are common in bike injuries where the rider is thrown from the bike. These can be expensive to treat, especially when they cause disfigurement. 
• Head injuries: Although a bike helmet can significantly reduce your risk of a head injury while riding, it won’t eliminate the risk. Skull fractures, concussions, and traumatic brain injury (TBI) are all common in bike accidents. TBI is also one of the injuries that may take the longest to become evident after your accident. 

Some bike accident injuries are obvious, while others may take time to become evident. Often, even if you know about the existence of an injury, it can be hard to appreciate the full complications and expenses related to that injury. If you aren’t fully recovered or aren’t sure you know the extent of your injuries, you should talk to a lawyer before agreeing to any settlement offer.

What to Do After a Bicycle Accident

After a bike accident, it’s important to take the right steps to protect your health and your rights. Here’s how:

Get Medical Attention

• If you or someone else was seriously hurt in the bike accident, call an ambulance. If you don’t think you were hurt personally, survey other people in the accident to see if any of them need an ambulance. 
• Even if you don’t feel hurt, it’s a good idea to get medical attention within a few hours–within a day at the longest. Sometimes injuries don’t manifest themselves immediately. It can take days, weeks, or even months for some injuries to become evident. Getting a checkup can often identify these injuries or alert you to warning signs, allowing you to catch them early and prevent them from worsening. 

Report the Accident to Authorities

• Even if you don’t need an ambulance, call 9-1-1 to report your accident to authorities, unless you are discouraged from reporting non-injury accidents due to accident volume or other factors. 
• When police arrive, give a full and honest account of the facts of the accident as you saw them. However, don’t tell the police about your thoughts or feelings–and don’t speculate about the thoughts and feelings of other people involved. Use neutral, factual language rather than colorful commentary about the other drivers. An overly emotional and speculative report could cause problems for you later. 

Document the Accident Scene

• Exchange information with all drivers involved in the accident. If a driver won’t give you their information, take their picture and as many pictures of their car as you can manage. If they flee the scene, don’t try to stop them, but do try to get a picture of their license plate and the driver, if possible.
• Take pictures of the accident scene. Take pictures of the damage to your bike and any nearby cars. Also, get pictures of any injuries. 
• If you were injured and had to leave the scene without getting information, contact a friend or family member to document it for you. 

Contact Insurance Companies

• When you can, contact the insurance company of the driver who hit you. It’s best to do this within 72 hours. Give a simple factual account of the accident, as close as possible to the one you gave to the police. If you feel the insurance representative is being combative or keeps asking questions with the intent to trip you up, say that you will call back later and talk to a lawyer. 
• Report the accident to your insurance company as well. Generally, your uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage will help pay for your injuries. 

Contact a Lawyer With Experience in Bike Accident Cases

Not every bike accident requires the assistance of a lawyer. However, you should talk to a bike accident lawyer if:

• There were multiple drivers involved in the accident
• A driver refused to give insurance information
• An insurance company is acting combative or offers a settlement that doesn’t cover your bills
• You have injuries that result in ongoing disability, pain, or medical expenses
• The driver who caused the accident is denying responsibility
• Someone is claiming that you are responsible for the accident
• A commercial truck was involved in the accident

In these situations, a bicycle accident attorney can make a big difference in your compensation, typically more than enough to cover their fees.