Bike Accidents

Cycling has been extremely popular in continental Europe for many years but it is now becoming increasingly popular in the UK, with an estimated 4,000,000 cyclists, and with this increase, as with all aspects of life, comes an increase in the number of accidents.

Common aspects of cycling accidents and injuries are that they tend to occur at or very close to road junctions and most occur during daytime, with head injuries being a common feature.

Cycling accidents are no different, legally, to other road accident claims or negligence claims, both the cyclist and other users of the road, whether in a car, bus or motorbike have a legal duty of care to each other. As with motorbike accidents, a proportion of bicycle accidents and injuries occurs due to potholes and roads being inadequately maintained, which will generally result in consideration of a claim against the Local Authority for failing to discharge it’s statutory duties as well as a general negligence law related claim.

Practical advice

Whilst depending on the nature of the accident and injuries it is not always possible to record evidence at the accident scene, should you suffer an accident or be a witness to one, the following steps are important :-

1) seek to exchange insurance and other details with the other party.

2) where possible, you should report the case to the police

3) take photos.

4) where repairs are needed to your bicycle, obtain several estimates and keep receipts when work has been undertaken.