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Cyclists should be able to ride their bikes across the country without the fear of getting into a bicycle accident.
Despite that, many careless drivers and negligent people keep crashing with bicycle riders, which causes serious injuries to them and sometimes even death. No one deserves to be in a bicycle accident or any accident at all, so victims of it need to hire a St. Louis bicycle accident attorney to file a lawsuit against the liable party for the accident.
Regardless of that, not all lawyers are experienced or qualified to take these kinds of cases, so victims need to take some time to look for the right legal assistant for them.
Anyone in need of a St. Louis bicycle accident lawyer doesn't need to keep looking for one since they can always rely on the Powell Law Firm. This law firm has experienced, licensed, and qualified lawyers that are more than willing to address their clients' needs. Victims of a bicycle accident can go to its website to schedule a free case evaluation.
What Are the Most Common Causes of Bicycle Accidents?
Many things can cause bicycle accidents, and while not all of them are because of negligent vehicle drivers, most of them are. Knowing the cause of bicycle accidents directly affects the compensation victims can get for it, so here are the most common causes of bicycle accidents:
Road Rage
Unfortunately, cyclists and bikers often suffer from road rage, and that often ends up causing a bicycle accident. As its name suggests, road rage consists of drivers adopting aggressive behavior against others.
Road rage tends to happen because drivers get angry when driving close to cyclists since they need to drive slower and be more mindful of the road. Nonetheless, getting annoyed by cyclists is no excuse to cause a bicycle accident, so victims can still file a lawsuit against aggressive drivers.
The problem with road rage is that the purpose of it is not damaging bikers or cyclists directly, but the behavior drivers adopt towards them makes them crash with them or make it more difficult for them to ride their bicycles correctly. Even if road rage doesn't directly cause a bicycle accident, it can make cyclists lose control of their bikes and fall from them.
Falling from bikes can get cyclists dangerous injuries, so no one should ignore them nor let people get away with road rage. Victims can always talk to bystanders to see if they witnessed what happened and use them as evidence for a future injury claim.
Intoxicated Driving
Intoxicated driving includes driving while being drunk or under the influence of any psychotropic substance that could affect someone's neuronal functions and ability to focus while driving. Drunk drivers and drivers who had been doing drugs are some of the most dangerous causes of bicycle accidents.
What causes the bicycle accident is not that the driver is drunk, but rather that being drunk makes it more difficult for them to drive and can lead to reckless driving. Therefore, intoxicated drivers tend to disobey traffic signals and drive faster than they should.
While motor vehicles often have many lights that help other drivers see them even if they are small, bikes don't always have them, so it's more difficult for someone drunk to notice them while driving. Additionally, most drunk driving-caused bike accidents are at night.
St. Louis bicycle accident attorneys addressing a bike accident need to check how drunk or high the negligent driver was at the moment of the accident since that directly affects the settlement they can get for their clients.
Intoxicated drivers not only cause bike accidents, and many people die yearly in car accidents caused by people under the influence of psychotropic substances.
Not Following Traffic Devices
Traffic control devices make driving possible in the first place since they give everyone on the street the control they need to move safely without a car crashing with them at any time. Thus, accidents happen when people ignore those traffic signals.
Being mindful of traffic devices becomes more important when dealing with bicycles and bystanders since they are not as big as motor vehicles, so they are always going to get hurt if a bike accident happens. However, distracted driving and drunk driving often make drivers ignore traffic signals or not see them at all.
This often happens when drivers are texting while driving or talking to another person without seeing the road. It's worth noting that bike riders can also cause a bicycle accident by ignoring traffic signals themselves, so St. Louis bicycle accident lawyers need to prove their client is not liable for the accident.
Driving Too Closely
Since bikes are smaller than cars and trucks, bike riders have more space to ride their bikes on the street, but that's also dangerous since being on the street means being too close to other cars. As it was mentioned before, that makes drivers drive slower, and therefore, get annoyed by cyclists.
Drivers can't drive that close to cyclists since moving just a bit could cause a bike accident and severely injure the person the car hits. This issue mostly comes from road raging drivers who move recklessly to move past cyclists and a bicycle accident law firm in St Louis would be familiar with the cyclist's rights.
How Dangerous Are Bicycle Accident Injuries?
Getting into a bike accident is as dangerous as getting into a car crash or motorcycle accident, so people can't take that lightly. What makes these accidents dangerous is the injuries bicycle accident victims can develop after being hit by motor vehicle drivers, and even if the victim survives the crash, medical expenses are not low.
Spinal cord injuries are some of the most common injuries people can get in a bicycle accident case, but that doesn't mean they are mild injuries. Damaging their spinal cord can put victims in a wheelchair for the rest of their lives.
Chronic pain is one of the most common symptoms of spine damage, and although pain is high and spine cords are dangerous, there are many other injuries bicycle riders need to prevent from happening. One of them is traumatic brain injuries, which could directly end the life of the person suffering from them.
Traumatic brain injuries can cause things such as memory loss, blindness, hearing loss, and reduced motor functions. As it happens with spinal cord injuries, people often don't notice they have these injuries, so going to a medical expert right after an accident is one of the most important things victims need to do.
Broken bones and facial fractures are also among the physical health issues victims can suffer from after going through a bicycle crash, but they are not always as severe as spine and brain injuries. Nonetheless, any injury victims have can be used as evidence in a future trial.
Many people get scared due to all the expenses they have to pay after a bicycle crash, and that's when a bicycle accident lawyer comes in handy. When victims of a bike accident file a lawsuit against the liable party in an accident, they can ask for compensation for all the non-economic and economic damages.
Those damages include medical bills and the pain and suffering of the victims, so expenses get lighter if the victim wins the case against the negligent driver. Therefore, all victims should hire an experienced bicycle accident lawyer for the matter. The Powell Law Firm is ideal to handle these cases, and they offer a free case review to the ones who call them.
What to Look for in a St. Louis Bicycle Accident Lawyer
While many people know they need to hire a bike accident lawyer when they get into an accident, victims don't always know what they have to look for when hiring one. The first thing people need to consider when looking for a lawyer is what they specialize in.
Some attorneys are experts when dealing with specific cases such as personal injury, wrongful death, or hit-and-run ones. Victims should look for an attorney that is experienced in dealing with bicycle crash cases.
Budget can be a problem for some people, but some lawsuits can cover legal damages, so that shouldn't be an issue as long as the victim hires a qualified attorney for the matter. Regardless of that, it's difficult to know if a lawyer is good or bad if the person doesn't have a reference for them.
Thus, many people are hesitant before hiring a law firm or attorney they don't know. Fortunately, anyone looking for a personal injury or bike crash lawyer can call the Powell Law Firm whenever they want.
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Final Thoughts
Bicycle accidents are one of the most unfair things that can happen when talking about driving or riding. Cyclists are not hurting anyone while riding their bikes, yet aggressive, negligent, and distracted drivers keep causing several injuries and deaths yearly due to not being careful enough while driving.
The Powell Law Firm is willing to help anyone suffering from that negligence, and the only thing people need to do is call it or contact it through its website to schedule a free case consultation. Lawyers from this law firm are professional and have getting their clients' compensation as a top priority.
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