Bicycle Accident Lawyers

At LifeLaw, our love of cycling runs deep. Many of us here at the firm love seeing this beautiful world by bike, including our Director of Claims, David A. Francis. Not only is he a highly respected bike accident attorney, he also spent three years as a member of the US Cycling Team. He lived in France, Mexico and raced internationally. Some of his teammates included Lance Armstrong, George Hincapie, and Jonathan Vaughters.

But while we’ve experienced the wonder of cycling, we’ve also seen its dangers.

Bicycle Vs. Car

A midsize car weighs over 3,000 pounds, and many motorists fail to look for cyclists. If you take a 3,000 pound car at 45 mph hitting a bicyclist, the impact is equivalent to 6,750 pounds of pressure against flesh and bone rather than a steel cage.

The tragic truth is approximately a thousand cyclists die every year in the United States due to bike vs. auto accidents. Many more are injured, and the injuries are often severe.

Even more disturbing, the motorist’s insurance company will try to wiggle out of paying your medical bills. The insurance company is a business, which means they’re trying to make a profit. That means they will pay the least amount possible in claims despite the expenses a cyclist faces because of the accident.

Possible Injuries

Some of the most common injuries we see in vehicle vs. bicycle accidents are:

• Traumatic brain injuries (TBI): Our brains keep our organs functioning properly, hold our memories, allow us to experience sensations, and contain all of the skills we’ve learned since infancy. Depending on the location of the brain damage, you could lose your ability to talk, walk, see, reason, remember your family, or even remember yourself.
• Spinal Injuries: Spinal injuries can affect any body system below the injury. These injuries can lead to many problems, including pain, pressure, weakness, loss of balance, paralysis, or loss of control over other bodily functions.
• Skeletal Injuries: Broken bones in the extremities, hips, shoulders, or ribs are painful and could prove life threatening if the break is traumatic enough to cause shock, severs a nearby artery, or punctures an internal organ.
• Internal Organ Injuries: Your brain, heart, and lungs are protected by bone, but broken bones endanger these vital organs. Other organs without protection are more susceptible to damage. Even if the accident doesn’t break the skin, the force of impact can cause internal hemorrhage and even loss of the damaged organ. While the body can function without some organs, such as the gallbladder or one of the kidneys, the loss of others causes lasting dependence on technology, like dialysis machines, while you wait on a donor list.
• Soft Tissue Injuries: Hyperextension of limbs can bruise or tear tendons and ligaments and require surgery. Road rash can be a deep and painful wound, even needing skin grafts if the damage goes deep enough.

When Should You Contact A Bicycle Accident Lawyer?

The simple answer is now. If you’ve been in an accident there are three things that will likely happen right off.

1. The vehicle driver’s insurance company will look for any possible reason why you are responsible for their driver hitting you. If you obeyed traffic laws, logically, this shouldn’t be a problem. Sadly, they move on to step two.
2. The insurance company will call you and record your conversation. They are looking for anything you might say that would negate the claim or lessen your payout. They’re recording you during one of the most stressful moments of your life and looking for a weakness. If that doesn’t work, they move on to step 3.
3. The insurance company will offer you a quick settlement. Insurance companies know that these types of injuries can linger for weeks, months, even years. As the first of your medical bills roll in, they offer you a lowball settlement offer that may seem like a lot in a single check but could quickly disappear with medical bills, ambulance rides, medications, medical equipment, hospital stays, surgeries, therapy, and possibly long-term care. Worse, if a loved one was killed in the accident, they might try to lowball the value of their life.

Our experienced Utah-based bike accident attorneys are experts in their field and will walk you through the process, protecting your rights. Every client gets VIP treatment.

• Our services start with a free consultation to direct you to the right path for the type of settlement you need to protect your financial future.
• Immediately after you retain our services, all insurance company communication will go through our office first. We review every document so you don’t inadvertently sign away your rights or get pressured into an early settlement.
• We do all the legal leg-work, gathering the proper documentation needed to present your case in negotiations with the insurance company. If they refuse to give you what you need and are justly entitled to in order to pay your medical bills, that documentation will be ready to present in court.
• We stay on top of the schedule so we meet every deadline. This means we submit paperwork in good order and make sure you know where you need to be for any meetings or court appearances.
• We make sure you never meet with opposing counsel or an adjuster without one of our bicycle accident lawyers being present.This ensures that the insurance company can’t twist your words or take them out of context. We know every trick of Big Insurance. We’ll stand up to them and advocate for you.

Why LifeLaw?

With other law offices available, why would you choose the Salt Lake City bike accident attorneys at LifeLaw? Our firm provides many services you won’t find in other offices.

• Committed to Listening to Your Story: One of the most common reviews we receive is that we take the time to listen to our clients. You aren’t just a number or an inconvenience. While listening is a common courtesy, which is reason enough, there is so much more to listening than that.
• We need to understand your situation in order to be effective. Our job as your bicycle accident lawyer is to help you reclaim your quality of life and protect your financial future from bills incurred by the accident. We need to understand:
  • How are your injuries changing your daily activities?
  • Are you missing important events?
  • Can you work the same job you did before the accident?
  • Can you work the same hours?
  • Do you have to take time off to go to doctor’s or therapy appointments?
  • Do you need a babysitter?
  • Does your spouse need to take time off because your ability to drive is hampered by your injury?
  • Do you need in-home care?
  • Are you getting the medical treatment you need to recover as well as possible from your injuries?
• In cases where a loved one was lost in a bicycle accident, we need to know:
  • Are you able to arrange the proper funeral for your loved one?
  • Are there kids you’re trying to raise on your own and put through college?
  • Do you need counseling for you or your children to deal with the trauma?
  • How does the loss change your finances?
• The bottom line: We listen because you hired us to protect you, your family, your life and what your future should be. We need to understand all the variables to serve you honorably. We will hear you out without rushing you along and make sure we understand exactly what you have been through and hope to get out of the case.
• Experienced with Utah’s Traffic and Personal Injury Laws: Our bicycle accident lawyers live here in Utah and have nearly a century’s worth of experience between them. We’re familiar with the terrain, weather, and other factors that may affect your case. You are our neighbors, and we will serve you with a passion for justice and decency. Your injuries are not your fault. You shouldn’t have to pay for someone else’s mistake for the rest of your life.
• Resolved: We take every case seriously and commit ourselves to seeing it through to the end. We won’t lose momentum half-way through the case or back down from Big Insurance. Insurance companies can be tough, but we’re tougher. You get our best effort every time.
• Accessible: While we want to give you freedom to live your life during this difficult process, we want to make sure you’re kept in the loop. If you have questions or concerns, or you just want to give us an update on your condition or that of your loved one, we are happy to meet with you in our office, over the phone, and by email.
• Client-focused: Our phenomenal staff is compassionate, efficient, and knowledgeable. They are here to help lift your burden and help you on the road to physical and financial healing.
• Respectful of your Time and Needs: Not all of our clients have the freedom to drop everything to run to our office. If you’re injured and unable to travel, we will meet you at the hospital. We also limit the number of face-to-face meetings where possible so you don’t unnecessarily take time off work or away from your loved one in the hospital. Your time is precious. We’ll worry about the details and call you when you’re needed to appear or to sign paperwork.

Cycle with Safety

In spite of the risks of cycling, there’s nothing quite like it for enjoyment and exercise. When you choose to cycle, you choose these advantages:

• Environmentally Friendly: It takes less time and materials to manufacture a bike. After manufacturing, there’s practically no carbon footprint. Without an engine, you don’t need gas, oil, radiator fluid, brake fluid, transmission fluid, replacement filters, hoses, electrical systems, or computerized gadgets and gizmos. Replacement tires or chains are a fraction of the cost and use far fewer raw materials than a tuneup and tire replacements on a car.
• Cost Effective: A bike’s price ranges from $50-$20,000 depending on what you need the bike to accomplish. If you plan on racing professionally, $20,000 is worth it for a bike that will give you an edge over the competition. For the average person, $100-$700 will get you a decent bike for commuting, exercising, and enjoying the fresh air.
  If you compare that to a car, a sub compact starts at $16,000 while a race car can go for $200,000-$600,000. Even if you factor in enough bikes to replace a family car seating four to six people, you see a huge savings. Add the savings from gas, car insurance, registration, tune ups, oil changes, car washes, and maintenance repairs, not to mention wear and tear on public roads that are repaired with tax dollars. Bicycles win the cost comparison hands down.
• Good for the Body and Soul. With Western society’s rising obesity rates, taking a more physically taxing ride to work could counteract the long hours we sit at a desk or stand at a counter each day. It can also lower the danger of heart disease, improve mental clarity, rejuvenate the immune system, and boost your mood between the exercise-induced feel-good hormones and vitamin-D producing sunshine.

Keep the rules of the road, wear the right helmet, keep your bike in safe condition, and stay vigilant. If motorists and cyclists do their part, we can dramatically reduce the number of cycling accidents in Utah. If you do end up as a victim of a bicycling accident, our Salt Lake City attorneys stand ready to help you navigate your personal injury lawsuit so you can move forward positively.