Washington Injury Law Blog

Seattle is a great place to ride a bicycle. There are many bike lanes, paths and dedicated trials to make it easier and safer for bicyclists. However, even with a bicycle friendly city like Seattle it’s dangerous to ride a bike where cars or other larger vehicles are present.

Injury attorneys often speak with bicyclists who have been hit by cars. Missouri attorney Benjamin Sansone of the Missouri Injury Law Blog posted an interesting article regarding bicycles accident. The primary cause of bicycle v. car accidents is driver inattention.

In my experience as a Washington injury lawyer, just as Mr. Sansone has found in Missouri, some of 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 bicycle accident cases I handle, the bicyclist suffers from broken bones, road rash, and multiple cuts and bruises. However, a bicycle v. car accident can lead to a death fairly easily.

The bicycle accident described above is often referred to as the “The Right Hook”. This is a fairly common bike v. car accident scenario. The driver nearly always swears they never saw the bicycle, or that they passed them and made an extra wide turn, but someone they still cut them off, or better yet they’ll blame the cyclist for speeding or not stopping for the car. Fact of the matter is, motorists often are hostile to bicyclists and do not respect their own duty to share the road.

There are many other ways for a bicyclist to get hit by a car. A list of ten ways cars hit bicycles and how to avoid them can be found at www.bicyclesafe.com.

Please be safe, ride defensively and share the road.