I’m an avid bicyclist and bike accident attorney here in Central Florida. The other day I received a phone call from a guy who was hit by a car while riding his bike. He was severely injured and he was very upset because the police officer put him at fault for the accident on the crash report.
This is what happened. The bicyclist was riding against traffic and inside the fog line. You know the fog line, the white line on the right side of the roadway. In this story, a car that was making a right hand turn out of a shopping center clipped the bicyclist causing him to go airborne, landing on the hood of the car and then the ground.
Do you think the bicyclist was at fault for the accident? Why did police officer put him at fault?
Well let’s think about this for a moment. Picture yourself driving your car. You are coming up to a main thoroughfare and you’re about to make a right turn. You stop at the stop sign and what do you do. You look to the left – its clear. You do not anticipate somebody coming at you from the right. You begin to move and then you look to the right and many times it’s too late. In this case the driver didn’t expect a bicycle coming up on the inside of the lane closest to him.
In the end, I believe both parties were somewhat at fault for this crash. The bicyclist for not riding with the flow of traffic and the driver for not looking both ways before taking his foot off of the brake and pulling out. The bicyclist will probably be able to receive some recovery but any recovery will be reduced by his percentage of fault.
If you have any questions about a Central Florida bicycle accident, you can call this Leesburg, Florida bike accident lawyer anytime