Your Guide to Michigan Bicycle Accidents and Recoveries

You may have been commuting to work, riding for fun, getting some exercise, or being environmentally friendly. However, the reasons you were on your bicycle don’t matter in your personal injury claim. The other driver had a responsibility to use reasonable care to avoid causing your bicycle accident.

How Bicycle Accidents Happen

Many bicycle crashes occur because a car driver, motorcyclist, or trucker was:

• Speeding
• Distracted
• Drowsy
• Drunk
• Otherwise negligent

These factors could cause a driver to:

• Fail to yield or obey traffic signals or signs
• Make a turn without checking for bicyclists
• Sideswipe a bicyclist
• Swerve into a bike-only lane
• Open a door of a parked car without checking for bicyclists

It is often the bicyclist who ends up with significant injuries after a crash with a motor vehicle.

Bicycle Accident Injuries

If you are hit by a car, truck, or motorcycle while on your bike, you may experience a(n):

• Head injury
• Spinal cord injury
• Broken bone
• Internal injury
• Face, eye, or dental injury
• Scar or disfigurement

In the most extreme cases, bicyclists may die from their accident injuries.

What to Do After a Bike Accident

You couldn’t prevent your bike crash, but you can control what happens with your recovery. Immediately after the crash, it’s essential to take the following actions if you are physically able to do so:

• Call 911. The dispatcher will send police to prevent secondary accidents and to investigate what happened. Additionally, the 911 dispatcher will send emergency first responders to attend to your immediate medical needs.
• Gather evidence. You may take pictures and video at the accident scene, gather the names and contact information for witnesses, and make a note of any businesses around that may have surveillance cameras that could have recorded the crash.
• Accept medical attention. You should accept medical attention even if you don’t experience injury symptoms immediately. Some injuries have delayed symptoms and prompt medical attention could prevent your injury from worsening.
• Watch what you say. You should confirm your identity and contact information, but you should not apologize for the crash or offer any opinions on what may have caused the crash.

After the accident scene clears, you can continue protecting your rights by:

• Following up with your medical care. Make sure to keep all of your doctors’ appointments and act consistently with medical advice.
• Staying off social media. Anything that you post about the accident or your activities may be misconstrued and used against you.
• Being cautious about speaking to insurance adjusters. Insurance adjusters want to maximize their companies’ profits, which means paying you as little as possible for your injuries.
• Calling an experienced Michigan personal injury lawyer. An attorney can make sure that all of your rights are protected so that you don’t have to worry about what steps to take next or what mistakes to avoid.

Together, these steps may help you recover fair damages for your bike accident injuries.

Protect Your Michigan Bicycle Accident Recovery

Before you begin pursuing a Michigan bike accident case, you need to know what you could recover if your case is successful. A bike accident settlement or court decision could allow you to recover your past and future:

• Medical costs. All of your accident-related healthcare costs should be part of your recovery. This includes but is not limited to ambulance transport, hospitalizations, surgeries, doctors’ appointments, medications, physical therapy, other rehabilitation therapies, and assistive medical devices.
• Lost income. Any income you can’t earn because of your injuries should be part of your recovery, including wages, bonuses, benefits, raises, and income from self-employment.
• Out-of-pocket costs. Out-of-pocket expenses may include damage to your bike and other accident-related expenses such as transportation and household help.
• Pain and suffering. Your physical pain and emotional suffering may be your most significant injuries, even if they are hard to quantify. An experienced lawyer will gather the necessary evidence and present the right arguments to convince the insurance company or the court of the value of these damages.

Our experienced Bloomfield Hills personal injury lawyers will thoroughly review what happened to you and fight for your full and fair recovery. The insurance company is not on your side, but our compassionate legal team is here to fight for you. Please contact us today and download our free guidebook, Personal Injury Handbook: A Practical Guide for Protecting Your Legal Rights, to learn more about your legal rights and why you can afford to hire a personal injury attorney.