What Are Your Rights if You’re Injured in a Bicycling Accident?

Negligent drivers who collide with and injure bicyclists may or may not face a criminal charge, but either way, if you’re a bicyclist, and you’ve been injured by a negligent driver, you should schedule a consultation at once to discuss your rights with a Halifax bicycle accident lawyer.

Across Canada, serious bicycle accidents are far too frequent. About 75 Canadians die every year in bicycle accidents, and hundreds more sustain serious, catastrophic, and sometimes disabling injuries.

If you’re injured, what steps should you take after a bicycling accident? How can you recover compensation for your medical expenses, lost earnings, and related damages and losses? How quickly should you contact a lawyer? And what will a lawyer’s services and advice cost you?

What Should You Know About Bicycling Injuries?

As bicycles do not include the safety features – such as airbags and safety belts – that are included with motor vehicles, even when bicyclists ride safely, they can sustain catastrophic injuries in a collision with a car, truck, bus, or motorcycle.

Bicyclists may sustain multiple broken bones, severe spinal cord damage, traumatic brain injuries, and limb injuries that will require amputation. If you’re the victim of a disabling or catastrophic injury in a bicycling accident, you may require medical care for life.

You’ll also require the services of a Nova Scotia bicycle accident lawyer who knows how to win the maximum amount of compensation that is available to you. When your health and future are on the line, you can’t take your case to an inexperienced or untested injury lawyer.

What Should You Do When a Bicycling Accident Happens?

When a bicycling accident happens and you’re the injured bicyclist, put yourself in the best position to prevail with a personal injury claim. Immediately summon medical and police assistance. Take photos of the scene, the damage to your bicycle, and your own injuries.

Try to get the names and personal contact details of any witnesses. This evidence matters. Photographs and witness statements that confirm your side of the story can become persuasive evidence that may lead to a swift settlement of your injury claim.

After a medical provider has examined and treated you, schedule a consultation immediately with a Nova Scotia bicycle accident lawyer who will explain your rights and take the appropriate legal measures to obtain your compensation.

Do not admit fault, don’t sign any insurance documents, and don’t even speak to the at-fault driver’s car insurance company before you’ve consulted a Halifax bicycle accident lawyer.

What Questions Must Be Answered After a Bicycling Accident?

If you’re injured in a bicycling accident and you bring a personal injury claim, these questions regarding the accident and your injury matter, and they must be asked and answered:

  1. Is there evidence or proof that the other driver was negligent?
  2. Do you have any of the fault for your own injury?
  3. Were you wearing a helmet when the bicycling accident happened?
  4. If the accident was at night, were you using the bike’s reflectors and lights?
  5. Did you have a pre-existing injury or medical condition?
  6. Are you unable to work due to your injury? For how long will you be unable to work?

Your lawyer will need answers to these questions in order to negotiate effectively with the negligent driver’s auto insurance company. Your lawyer may also ask an accident reconstruction expert or a medical authority to provide testimony or make a statement supporting your claim

How Are Bicycle Accident Claims Usually Handled?

Bicycle accident claims in Nova Scotia are typically resolved when lawyers for each side meet to negotiate an out-of-court settlement, but if liability for a bicycle accident is in dispute, or if an appropriate settlement offer is not forthcoming, your lawyer will take your case to trial.

At a personal injury trial, your lawyer will tell the judge or jury how (and how severely) you were injured. Your lawyer will also explain why the judge or jury should find the other driver liable and why that driver’s insurance company should be ordered to compensate you.

How Can Bicycling Accidents Be Prevented?

If you ride a bicycle, you can reduce your chances of a serious injury by taking some basic safety precautions:

  1. Obey the rules of the road. Heed the traffic signs and signals, and yield to pedestrians.
  2. Wear bright clothing that helps drivers see you.
  3. At night, be sure your bicycle has headlights, reflectors, and taillights.
  4. Wear a helmet; it significantly reduces the risk of a traumatic brain injury.
  5. Don’t drink or use any intoxicating substances before you ride a bicycle.

What Else Should You Know?

In Nova Scotia, the deadline or limitation period for filing a bicycle accident claim, in most cases, is two years from the date of the accident, but you must not wait two years to speak with a lawyer. Make the call right away after you’ve been examined and treated by a medical provider.

Evidence can be lost, altered, or contaminated over time, and the recollections of witnesses may fade. Your lawyer should examine the evidence while it’s fresh, including the medical records and the police report, and your lawyer should speak to any witnesses before their memories fail.

Your first consultation with your injury lawyer costs nothing and entails no obligation. If you and your lawyer proceed with legal action, you’ll pay no lawyer’s fee until you are compensated. If for any reason you are not compensated, you’ll owe no fee to your lawyer.

How Should You Select a Bicycle Accident Lawyer?

If you’ve been injured while bicycling in Nova Scotia, you must be represented and advised by a Halifax personal injury lawyer who has experience and a record of success:

  1. negotiating with auto insurance companies
  2. proving how negligent drivers cause accidents and injure bicyclists
  3. prevailing with accident claims at trial
  4. fighting aggressively and effectively for the compensation that injury victims need

The award-winning lawyers at McKiggan Hebert have decades of experience prevailing with personal injury claims for their injured clients in the Halifax area. We know how to recover the compensation you need.

If you file an injury claim after a bicycling accident, you’ll owe no lawyer’s fee to McKiggan Hebert until we recover your compensation. To learn more, call McKiggan Hebert Lawyers in Halifax at 902-706-2298 to schedule your no-cost, no-obligation first legal consultation.