Bicycle & Pedestrian Accidents
When a person is hit by a vehicle, the injuries are serious and the insurance questions are unusual. We have deep experience with both.
Bicyclists: A Car's Mistake, Your Injuries
A driver turning across a bike lane, making a U-turn, or pulling into a driveway can end a cyclist's year in a second.
We have represented riders who suffered fractured ribs and clavicles, shoulder injuries requiring surgery, collapsed lungs, and head injuries — crashes caused by drivers who simply didn't look. These cases demand early evidence work (police reports, scene photos, camera footage), careful documentation of a long recovery, and a hard look at every layer of insurance.
Pedestrians: Struck While Walking
Pedestrian cases we handle include people hit in crosswalks and parking areas, struck by backing vehicles, and hit by commercial vans and delivery vehicles. Head injuries are common even at low speeds — concussion and post-concussive syndrome, with headaches, dizziness, and memory and concentration problems that can persist for a year or more. We work with treating physicians and objective testing to document brain injuries insurers cannot wave away, and we account for later complications a brain injury can cause.
“The pedestrian wasn't in a crosswalk.”
Insurers lean hard on comparative fault in pedestrian cases. It reduces a claim — it doesn't end one. Where a driver was speeding, distracted, or failed to keep a lookout, we have recovered full policy limits despite contested liability.
Coverage Questions Most People Never Face
- Your auto policy can cover you on a bike or on foot. Many people don't realize their own UM/UIM coverage may apply when they're hit by a car as a cyclist or pedestrian — often the largest source of recovery when the driver carries minimal limits.
- Some coverages don't transfer. Whether medical payments coverage applies to a bicyclist is a technical policy question — we read the policy language so you don't rely on an adjuster's interpretation.
- Commercial vehicles mean commercial policies. Delivery vans and work vehicles often carry far larger policies — and sometimes excess or umbrella coverage the carrier won't volunteer. We demand the declarations and chase every layer.
- Medicare, Medi-Cal, and health plan liens. Serious treatment creates serious liens. We negotiate them at the end of the case — in one matter we pursued a federal waiver process until a five-figure Medicare lien was waived entirely.
Experience That Shows in the Results
Our representative matters include a $300,000 underinsured motorist settlement for a bicyclist struck by a turning car, a $250,000 policy-limits recovery for a pedestrian who suffered a traumatic brain injury, and a $225,000 settlement for a pedestrian struck by a commercial vehicle. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome — every case depends on its own facts and coverage.