What If A Roadway Hazard Causes You To Crash Your Bicycle?

You may be doing everything possible to stay safe on your bike. You only ride on paths away from traffic to avoid being hit by a careless driver. Safety gear is a given and you never get on the saddle without a helmet and other protective equipment.

Not only that, but you use hand signals and are always on the lookout for pedestrians and other bikers. However, one thing that is sometimes out of your control are road hazards that pose a safety threat.

If you crash, whether or not it was caused by somebody else, there are some things you need to do before you call bike accident lawyers to help you.

In this article, we will go over several of the things you should do if you are involved in a bicycle crash.

Roadway with potholes or roots
If you are riding along the road or a bike path that has not been properly maintained then this is usually an accident waiting to happen. You may not notice a pothole or overgrown root pushing up the pavement until it is too late.

Right after the crash, make sure to get off the roadway as quickly as possible. Be it a street with traffic or a bike path with other cyclists, you need to make sure another accident is not caused by you being in the roadway.

Once you have assessed the damage then you should make sure to get as many pictures of the hazard as possible. If there are overgrown roots that are causing damage to the path then it's the responsibility of the local department of public works to have taken care of it. Since it had enough time to grow this large it is clearly a case of neglect and you should have a case.

Potholes are a bit more complicated. This is why pictures are essential. If the pothole is very new, like less than 48 hours old, then there may not be much that can be done as some extraordinary event happened and the DPW didn't have enough time to respond. But, if it looks like it has been around for a while and there were multiple attempts to patch it then this is also a good case for a lawsuit.

Sewer grate
Bicyclists have the right to ride on safe roads. And sewer grates that face the same direction as a bike tire pose an unnecessary hazard. Many towns have turned the grates so that the bike tire can't easily get stuck in the grate.

However, there are some towns who have not done this and others that may have neglected some of them which now pose a danger to cyclists that may not be aware that they haven't been turned.

If you have an accident caused by a sewer grate then you should definitely have a case because of this neglect. It is a simple procedure for the city to remedy the situation and they didn't, which means that you have a good cause for a case.