Bike Accidents
Posted in Bike Accidents,Uncategorized on October 9, 2017
After a few drinks it might sound like a nice idea to beat the uprising Uber fares and get some fresh air – why not bike home? How dangerous could it be? After all, a bicycle is not motorized. The answer: it can be very dangerous, even illegal in some states. The definition of a DUI or “driving under the influence” charge is as follows: “operating a motor vehicle while one’s blood alcohol content is above the legal limit set by statute, which supposedly is the level at which a person cannot drive safely.” Does biking and drinking count as…
Continue reading Can Drunk Bicyclist get a DUI?
Posted in Bike Accidents,Car Accidents on September 19, 2017
Bicycle commuting is rapidly gaining popularity across the nation, but especially in California. San Francisco saw commutes rise by nearly 9 percent in 2016, with an estimated 82,000 bike trips every day. However, with the prevalence of bicycles also comes the potential for danger, as cyclists and motorists learn to coexist on the busy SF streets. One of the most dangerous things that can happen is “dooring” – when a parked vehicle unknowingly opens their door to obstruct the path of an incoming cyclist. While it may sound comical, dooring may result in potentially serious, painful injuries including: Severe road…
Continue reading What Do I Do If I’ve Been “Doored” By a Car?
Posted in Bike Accidents on April 13, 2017
A driver in downtown San Francisco fled the scene of a serious accident recently, but the police fortunately apprehended her later in the day. This is yet another example of drivers who try to get away from the problems they caused, only to suffer more extensive punishment because of their decision. No one should flee the scene of an accident. There is no reason to do this. You immediately escalate a civil wrong to a criminal act. And drivers who stay at the scene are able to help those who have been hurt by their conduct The 32-year-old defendant driver…
Continue reading Leaving The Scene Of An Accident Is Wrong
Posted in Bike Accidents on January 20, 2017
San Francisco’s Vision Zero campaign includes an effort to avoid personal injuries to citizens by, in part, changing city’s streets to better protect pedestrians and bicyclists. City officials optimistically hope to eliminate traffic fatalities in San Francisco by 2024. Making pedestrian and bicycle safety a priority is especially important at high-volume intersections. Last month, one of San Francisco’s most dangerous intersections received safety upgrades intended to eliminate the danger riders and walkers face from reckless drivers. On Dec. 21, city officials officially unveiled San Francisco’s first “protected intersection” at Ninth and Division streets. According to SFBAy.ca, the intersection now includes…
Continue reading San Francisco unveils 1st ‘protected intersection’
Posted in Bike Accidents on February 22, 2016
The mission of San Francisco’s Vision Zero campaign is to eliminate fatal bicycle and pedestrian crashes in the city. Much of the effort is focused on eliminating accidents, but sometimes there are collisions that are not accidental at all. Sometimes, motorists use their cars and trucks as weapons to inflict serious harm on cyclists. In a recent example, an eyewitness told SFist.com that he saw a motorist strike a bicycle with his car in a fit of road rage. The incident happened outside the San Francisco Art Institute. It is not clear what enraged the driver, but he apparently knocked…
Continue reading San Francisco Bicyclists the Victims of Road Rage
Posted in Bike Accidents on October 20, 2015
We speak often on this blog about bicycle safety in San Francisco, which is a passion at our firm. A pair of recent crashes shows that the city has a long way to go to be a safe place to ride. The incidents took place within half an hour of each other on Oct. 11, with one rider sustaining fatal injuries and another being taken to the hospital. Both involved large vehicles that dwarfed the victims’ bicycles. In the first crash, the victim was riding a mountain bike when he became caught between two Muni buses in a “high injury…
Continue reading SEPARATE BIKE ACCIDENTS LEAVE ONE CYCLIST DEAD ANOTHER INJURED
Posted in Bike Accidents on August 14, 2015
This blog frequently reports on people who were hurt or killed while riding their bicycle, which is an all-too-frequent occurrence in San Francisco. Most of the time, our posts are about cyclists getting hit by cars, trucks and other motor vehicles. However, sometimes two or more bicycles collide with each other. While the force of impact is unlikely to be nearly as strong as when a car crashes into a bike, any bicycle accident has the potential to be serious. In an example from outside of California, a 69-year-old man was killed recently when his bicycle crashed into another bike….
Continue reading Bicycle-on-bicycle accidents can cause injury too
Posted in Bike Accidents on July 20, 2015
A retired Arizona judge was killed recently while riding his bicycle on a California road near Lake Tahoe. It appears that the driver of the SUV that hit him failed to give the victim enough room as he drove past. As the cyclist rode, a Jeep Grand Cherokee came up from behind him, going an estimated 45 to 50 miles per hour. The California Highway Patrol said that the SUV drifted to the right as it passed the victim and struck him. The victim lost control of his bicycle and was thrown to the ground. He hit his head and,…
Continue reading Retired judge killed by SUV while riding his bicycle
Posted in Bike Accidents on February 20, 2015
As we have mentioned a couple of times in this blog, most recently on Feb. 6, our law firm is proud to support Walk San Francisco’s Vision Zero campaign, a collaboration with city officials. Vision Zero’s goal is to eliminate pedestrian and bicyclist deaths in collisions with motor vehicles within a decade. A pair of maps recently released by Vision Zero shows how widespread the problem of pedestrian and cyclist accidents is in San Francisco. One map shows all the bicycle crashes involving injury or death from 2007 to 2011, according to the California Highway Patrol. The other displays pedestrian…
Continue reading Vision Zero maps out San Francisco’s bicycle, pedestrian injuries
Posted in Bike Accidents on October 27, 2014
Whenever someone is injured or killed in a preventable motor vehicle accident, it is a tragedy. But often some good can come of a tragedy if it is used as a learning opportunity to prevent similar costly mishaps in the future. One example of this is a San Francisco motorcyclist and his colleagues who have turned an idea that sprang from a collision into a potentially lifesaving device. “The idea actually came from a motorcycle accident that I had in Barcelona,” said the founder and CEO of SKULLY Helmets, Marcus Weller, according to ABC 7 News. “A few months later…
Continue reading San Francisco biker turns motorcycle crash into safety innovation
