Biking is popular in the Joliet area. People use their bikes for recreation after work and on weekends, and they also use it as a mode of transportation to get to work and around town. Cyclists are safer when they can use dedicated bike lanes or cycling trails. Unfortunately, accidents occasionally occur when bikes need to share the roads with cars. Because bikes cannot protect their riders from the impact of a crash, bicycle accidents often result in devastating injuries and even fatalities.
If you are dealing with a serious bike accident injury, a Joliet bicycle accident lawyer could help you. A compassionate personal injury attorney could review the details of what happened and help you decide whether to pursue financial damages in a lawsuit against the negligent driver.
Driver Errors That Lead to Bike Crashes
Some bike accidents occur when a cyclist is careless or encounters an unexpected roadway defect, such as a pothole or an uneven or slippery road surface. Yet even the safest of cyclists who faithfully obey all rules of the road cannot avoid harm when negligent or reckless car drivers hit them. When a driver is responsible for causing a bike accident, often the following driver errors are to blame:
- Inattentive drivers: When drivers are distracted by their texts or phone calls, they do not pay enough attention to what is occurring on the road and might miss seeing a bike.
- Speeding: When drivers speed, it is more difficult to slow down or stop in time to prevent sudden accidents.
- Intoxicated driving: When motorists drive drunk, they cannot control their cars, which could cause them to veer out of their lane or even off the road and into a cyclist.
- Aggressive driving and road rage: Cars sometimes tailgate bicycles and may even try to push them off the road in a fit of rage.
Joliet bike accident attorneys know how to investigate any of these scenarios. They have the ability to comb through all available evidence to pinpoint the cause of a crash and demonstrate how the car driver’s negligence, recklessness, or intentional misconduct led to the accident.
How Bike Accidents Often Occur
Because bikes are so much smaller and lower to the ground, car drivers often have difficulty seeing them. Bike accidents frequently occur in the following situations:
- Drivers often hit cyclists at intersections, particularly when cars turn left and cut off bikes traveling straight. Drivers need to look out for bicycles and they need to respect the rights of cyclists to use the same roads.
- When drivers fail to stop as required at red lights or stop signs, or yield to cyclists with the right of way.
- Accidents can occur when cars try to squeeze around bikes and end up sideswiping the bicycle because there was not sufficient room.
- When drivers or passengers in parked cars open their car doors and hit passing cyclists.
A local bicycle accident lawyer understands how difficult it can be to recover from a serious crash. They could work aggressively to ensure that an injured cyclist receives full compensation for all of their injuries.
Contact a Joliet Bicycle Accident Attorney Today
If a careless driver struck you while you were riding your bike, you deserve access to the best possible medical care to assist in your recovery from your injuries. A Joliet bicycle accident lawyer could help you fight for sufficient damages to pay for the care that you may need. Reach out to someone from our team today to schedule an initial meeting.