Chicago Bicycle Accident Lawyer

Bicyclists in Chicago are subject to many of the same laws and regulations as motor vehicles. In addition, there are laws regarding driving on the road with bicycles that motorists must obey. In Chicago and Illinois, these cycling laws are in place to prevent traffic accidents and to protect bicyclists from injury. Often when these laws are ignored, accidents occur causing serious injuries to bicyclists. If an accident does occur and a motorist was violating an ordinance, it may help determine fault or liability for injuries to the cyclist.

The Chicago Municipal Code (Section 9-52) requires cyclists to follow the rules of the road or be subject to a penalty. However, there are certain other laws that target the prevention of accidents on the road in Chicago.

The following specifically apply to motorists when cyclists are in the area:

• 9-16-020 e. Motorists must yield the right-of-way to bicyclists traveling the opposite direction when making a left hand turn. This includes bicycles that are in or approaching an intersection.
• 9-36-020 f. When making a right turn, motorists must not turn in front of a bicyclist traveling in the same direction.
• 9-36-010 c. Motorists must give at least three feet of clearance when passing a bicycle in the same direction and maintain that clearance until they safely have passed the bicycle.
• 9-40-060. Motorists should never park, drive or stand in a designated bike lane.
• 9-40-160. Motorists need to use due care to avoid crashing into a bicyclist.
• 9-80-035. It is illegal to open a vehicle door into oncoming traffic unless it is safe to do so and only to load or unload passengers.

Chicago bicyclists are also protected under the Illinois Vehicle Code (625 ILCS 5). Illinois statute also requires motorists to:

• Yield to bicyclists approaching an intersection
• Use caution when opening a car door or loading passengers
• Use ‘due care' when driving around bicyclists

The Illinois average for bike accident recoveries is approximately $300,000. State median recoveries for bike accidents range between $25,000 and $40,000. 75% of cases recovered under $100,000 and 10% of cases recovered more than $1,000,000.

Factors, which contribute to the value of a bicycle accident case, include economic and non-economic damages including:

• Severity of injuries sustained by the bicyclist
• Medical bills for past and future care
• Wages lost as a result of the incident
• Amount of insurance coverage
• Insurance company for responsible driver or party
• Opinions as to permanency offered by a treating physician
• How an incident occurred and severity of the impact
• Jurisdiction where the crash occurred

Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers LLC has represented many victims of Illinois bicycle accidents. Collisions involving a bike tend to be serious. Below is data from representative Illinois bicycle accident settlements and verdicts.

• $499,000: Vehicle exiting a parking garage in Chicago struck a bike messenger. Attorneys proved through discovery that the driver was new to the area and did not know there was two-way traffic on the street he was entering. Achieved within four months and for virtually the full amount of available insurance coverage.
• $250,000: Uninsured motorist claim for a businessman involved in a hit-and-run bicycle accident. The recovery was made through his own insurance policy.
• $250,000: The driver failed to yield to cyclists on a busy city street during rush hour. The cyclist had damage to the knee and required arthroscopic surgery. Policy limits of at fault driver were tendered within 60 days of our involvement.
• $180,000: 23-year old man was ‘doored' by a man exiting his vehicle on the Northside of Chicago. The cyclist was thrown over his handlebars and fractured his clavicle and skull. Initially, the driver's insurance company denied this claim due to road construction on the street.
• $105,000: An amateur triathlete was struck by a vehicle trying to pass her. The woman was thrown from her bike and injured her knee, requiring arthroscopic repair. This award represents the policy limits of the cyclist's uninsured motorist policy and the full amount of medical payment coverage.

Yes, you can likely make a recovery for injuries related to a hit-and-run bicycle accident via an uninsured motorist claim under your auto insurance policy. In some cases, you may also be able to make a claim if a family or household member, has an auto policy with uninsured motorist coverage. Illinois has an uninsured motorist and hit-and-run motor vehicle coverage statute, which requires persons carrying auto insurance to be insured against loss from uninsured motorists and hit-and-run accidents (215 ILCS 5/143a). Under the statute, there must be contact between you and the vehicle that hit you.

The statute of limitations for bodily injury claims involving bicycle accidents in Illinois is two years from the date of the accident. See 735 ILCS 5/13- 202 & 205. This means you must file a lawsuit against the negligent party or accept final settlement within two years or you may lose your right to recover.

Usually. Under Illinois law, you are allowed to recover at least partial compensation for injuries you sustained in a bicycle accident as long as you are not found to be more than 50 percent responsible for the accident.

In Illinois, traffic laws apply to both motor vehicle drivers and bicyclists (625 ILCS 5/11-1502). This means that cyclists have the same duty to follow the rules of the road as drivers. You can be found at fault for your bike accident if your own negligence caused or contributed to the accident. Nevertheless, you might still be able to recover compensation for your injuries from one or more parties that share responsibility for the crash.

Illinois follows the doctrine of modified comparative fault, which bars recovery when an injured plaintiff (in this case the bicyclist) is more than 50 percent at fault for an accident (735 ILCS 5/ 2-1116). In Illinois, bicyclists who are injured in an accident and carry less than half of the blame for the event have the right to recover damages. However, their damages will be reduced by their percentage of fault. This means that if you are found to be 30 percent at fault for the accident, you can recover only 70 percent of your total economic and noneconomic damages. The extent of negligence and percentage of fault are determined by a jury or other trier-of-fact, not a police report or insurance company.

You can bring a lawsuit on your child's behalf as well as your own for the injuries, expenses, and physical and mental suffering caused by the accident.

If your minor child was injured in an Illinois bicycle accident, you may be able to recover damages on their behalf. You can bring a lawsuit against the at-fault party for negligence as your child's parent and "next friend." As plaintiff, you need to prove that: (1) the defendant had a duty not to injure your child; (2) he or she breached that duty; and (3) your child was injured and suffered damages as a consequence of the defendant's breach.

If your child dies from injuries sustained in a bicycle accident, you would have to sue the responsible party for wrongful death. In a wrongful death lawsuit, you must prove that your child was fatally injured as a result of the defendant's misconduct, intentional or otherwise, and you suffered damages because of the death. Monetary compensation available to you includes not only economic damages such as medical bills and burial costs, but noneconomic damages such as anguish and loss of companionship.

Normally, if a cyclist is found to have acted negligently in an accident that injured him, the legal doctrine of comparative negligence will reduce the amount he is able to recover from another party or even bar his recovery completely. However, Illinois has adopted the tender years doctrine, which establishes that children under seven years of age are categorically incapable of negligence because they cannot recognize risk, and thus cannot legally contribute to an accident (Appelhans v. McFall, 325 Ill. App. 3d 232 (Ill. App. Ct. 2001)).

In Illinois, if a minor child between the ages of seven and 14 is involved in an accident, there is a rebuttable presumption that the child is not capable of contributory negligence. This means the law still presumes that the child cannot be responsible for the accident, but the opposing party can overcome that presumption by showing sufficient evidence. The jury must take into account the child's age, capacity, intelligence and experience in determining his or her fault (Savage v. Martin, 256 Ill. App. 3d 272 (Ill. App. Ct. 1993)).

Depending on the circumstances, the driver and the driver's employer might both be responsible for your bicycle accident injuries and damages, under the theory of respondeat superior.

In most bike accidents involving an on-the-job driver, the employer the driver was working for at the time will be vicariously liable for any damages arising from the accident. This is known as respondeat superior, which is a common-law legal doctrine that holds that employers are responsible for their employees' actions when made within the scope of their employment.

For an employee to be acting within the scope of employment, "the conduct must be (1) of the kind the employee is employed to perform, (2) must occur within the authorized time and space limits of the employment, and (3) must be done at least in part to serve the employer, rather than be for the employee's personal ends" (Bagent v. Blessing Care Corp., 224 Ill.2d 154 (Ill. 2007), quoting Restatement (Second) of Agency). The employer most likely would be liable unless the accident occurred outside the scope of the at-fault driver's employment.

You can pursue damages in a bicycle accident case against the employer of the driver responsible for your injuries, but that person must have been working at the time of the event in order to hold their employer vicariously liable.

These are some common examples of employee conduct sufficient to trigger vicarious liability:

• A driver was traveling from one job site to another
• A driver was making a delivery to a client on behalf of an employer
• A driver was going to pick up supplies for an employer

These are examples of conduct not considered within the scope of employment:

• A driver was commuting to his job but had not started working yet
• A driver was running a personal errand
• The employer's car was being driven by someone who stole it

Yes. Illinois law allows multiple parties to be held responsible for bicycle accidents in certain situations.

Many Illinois bicycle accidents involve contact with more than one vehicle. In a lot of cases, a bicyclist will be struck by a vehicle as he or she is attempting to avoid a collision with a different vehicle. This is common in "dooring" accidents, when a driver opens their door into the path of an oncoming bicycle, causing the bicyclist to swerve and be hit be another driver. Under both Chicago and Illinois law, it is illegal to open a car door on the side of moving traffic unless it is safe to do so. In this type of case, it is possible that both motorists could be at fault and liable for injuries to the bicyclist (625 ILCS 5/11-1407).

First, you need to sue everyone who may have caused the accident that injured you. Then you need to show in court that their individual actions contributed to causing your injuries. After that, you are allowed to seek damages from each defendant. Illinois lets you do this because it follows the theory of joint and several liability.

This means that any member of a defendant class can be held responsible for the plaintiff's entire damages even if its own role in the accident was minor. This is an implicit advantage for claimants because it allows them to recover from defendants with the greatest ability to pay—for instance, a trucking company or other commercial defendant—regardless of that defendant's percentage of fault for the accident. If a defendant believes that it paid more than its fair share to the plaintiff, then it can seek reimbursement from the other defendant(s), but only after fulfilling its obligation to the plaintiff.

No. Following an accident in which you were injured, you are not legally obligated to give an insurance company representative, or any other person, any statement about the incident, with the exception of law enforcement.

By law, you are not required to give insurance companies any verbal or written information or documents they might request of you before you have legal representation. Before discussing any details of your bicycle accident with the at-fault driver's auto insurance company, you should speak with a qualified accident attorney. In the immediate aftermath of an accident, insurance companies for the responsible party often try to obtain as much information as possible from the injured person in order to negotiate a low claim settlement. They are not looking out for your best interests, and often later use what you tell them against you.

Yes, an experienced bicycle accident attorney can assist you with all issues involved with your case. However, the decision to hire an attorney to represent you in a bicycle accident case is a personal decision. a qualified personal injury firm will be able to offer substantial resources, experience, skill and care to your bicycle accident case. Attorneys obtain police reports and help you through the insurance claim process and give you a good idea as to the value of your case. Our Chicago bike accident lawyers negotiate with insurance companies to provide the best outcome for you.