Articles Posted in Bicycle Accident

Chicago injury lawyers are taking note that our City has been named the 10th best city in the nation for bike riding by Bicycling Magazine. As we reported on our Chicago Personal Injury Lawyer blog earlier this month, spring is a critical time for motorists to keep safety in mind in an effort to reduce Chicago bicycling accidents.

The Chicago Department of Transportation offers a host of safety and recreational resources for bicyclists and motorists. The city’s Bike 2015 Plan aims to expand the city’s cycling infrastructure by 50 percent, from 104 bike lane miles to 150 bike lane miles. Overall, the system will grow from 315 miles to 500 miles.Illinois bicycle accidents killed 27 riders in 2008 and seriously injured 3,385.

BicycleSafe.com offers a number of safety tips as well as dangerous areas where cyclists should utilize extra caution:

-The Right Cross: One of the most common ways to get hit is by a car pulling out of a parking lot or entering an intersection from the right. Safety tips include using a headlight, honking, slowing down and riding further to the left.

-The Door Prize: Opening car doors pose a serious risk to cyclists. Riding further to the left will often provide a cyclist with the room and reaction time necessary to avoid a collision.

-The Crosswalk Slam: Cyclists are frequently hit while cross the street in or near a crosswalk, by a vehicle making a right turn. Using a headlight, slowing down and avoiding riding on the sidewalk or in crosswalks can help reduce the danger.

-Wrong-way Wreck: Riding against traffic poses a serious risk to cyclists and is against the law in many areas. Don’t do it.

-Red Light of Death: Being pinched by a car turning right at a red light can be dangerous. Avoid stopping in a vehicle’s blind spot and be aware of cars turning right when approaching a vehicle on the right.

-Right Hook: A car passing a cyclist will sometimes try to make a sudden right across the bicycle’s travel lane. Cyclists can help avoid this danger by not riding on sidewalks or crosswalks, riding to the left to prevent passing and glancing in a rearview mirror before approaching an intersection.

-Left Cross: Vehicles turning left across traffic often fail to spot a cyclist in time: Using headlights, avoiding sidewalk riding, wearing bright clothing, avoiding right-handed passing and slowing down can help improve safety.

-The Rear End: Being rear-ended while on a bike can cause serious or fatal injuries. Never move left without looking behind you; don’t swerve in and out of street-parking lanes; and use your mirrors and signals.
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Cyclists and motorists alike should keep safety in mind as spring brings with it an increase in traffic and the risk of serious or fatal Chicago bicycling accidents.

The federal government supports the use of bicycle helmets and bicycle helmet laws as the best defense against head injuries in a bicycle accident.More than 51,000 bicyclists have died in traffic crashes in the U.S. since 1932, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. A federal study in 2006 found that 773 cyclists were killed and more than 44,000 injured.

In 2008, a total of 27 bicycle riders were killed and 3,385 seriously injured in Illinois bicycle accidents.

The estimated annual cost of serious and fatal bicycle accidents is more than $8 billion.

With the growing popularity of cycling for recreation or fitness, the average age of cyclist killed in an accident has increased to 41 — more than one-third of all fatalities occur to riders ages 35 to 54 and more than 80 percent of all bicycle accident victims are men.

– Children under 14 accounted for 98 fatalities, or 13 percent of bicycle accident deaths.
-13 percent were ages 15 to 24.
– 12 percent were 25 to 34.
– 36 percent were 35 to 54 years old.
– 25 percent were 55 or older.

The federal government reports that bicycle helmets are almost 90 percent effective in mitigating head and brain injuries, making them the single most-effective safety measure a rider can take. Currently, 21 states and more than 149 cities have bicycle helmet laws, primarily geared to young riders under the age of 16.

Current law requires all messengers in the City of Chicago to wear a bicycle helmet. Several other Illinois municipalities also have helmet ordinances, according to the Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute.
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A fatal Illinois bicycle accident has claimed the life of a 17-year-old Chicago student, the Sun-Times reported.

The teen was on a spring break bicycle trip downstate when an 86-year-old driver in a minivan swerved across the center line and struck her and two friends head on, according to Illinois State Police.

All three students were from the University of Chicago Lab School. The two friends, both 18, were taken to hospitals in Evansville in serious but stable condition.