What to Do After a Houston Bicycle Accident

Houston is ideal for tooling around on your bike. Our warm temps and beautiful scenery practically beg you to grab your bike and hit the road. Biking is also a great way to go green, get your exercise, and enjoy the sights and sounds of the city.

Another thing Houston is ideal for, however, is mega-traffic, which can leave cyclists in danger of serious accidents and injuries.

If a driver's negligence has left you injured in a Houston bike accident, you need experienced legal counsel. Oftentimes, there's absolutely nothing besides your helmet to protect you from the impact of a vehicle-bike accident. These crashes can cause serious and even catastrophic injuries. At Stewart J. Guss, Attorney at Law, our nationally recognized team of lawyers and legal professionals has faced down insurance companies for decades, and we’re here to help you. Our experienced bike accident lawyers have the skill, knowledge, and determination to help navigate your claim toward just compensation. If you were hit while riding your bike, please contact us online or call us today for more information.

The Aftermath of Your Bike Accident

If you were injured in a bike accident, you’re no doubt overwhelmed at best. In such situations, it’s difficult to know how to move forward, but you can help guard your physical as well as your legal recovery:

1. Call 911 - The impact of a bike accident is serious. Even if you don’t think you have suffered a significant injury, alert the authorities and seek immediate medical attention. Serious injuries can develop with time and become more dangerous and more difficult to treat in the process. Both the medical record and the accident report generated by calling 911 will help strengthen your claim. Always put safety first.

2. Gather evidence - The evidence left in the aftermath of your bike accident will form a critical element in your claim. If you can’t gather evidence at the scene of the accident yourself, enlist a bystander to do it for you. Focus on:

• Taking extensive pictures and videos with your smartphone that depict both the overall accident scene and the pertinent details.
• Collecting eyewitness testimony and contact information.
• Jotting down your recollections on exactly how the accident occurred. Because the mayhem that accompanies a bike accident can quickly blur your memories, include as many details as possible, and as soon as you can. This written document can help your bike accident attorney better evaluate and guide your claim.
• Roughly sketching out the accident, including its exact location, the directions of travel, where you incurred damage, and any mitigating elements that you believe could have played a role in the accident. These can include such things as poor road conditions (caused by inclement weather, a damaged roadway, road construction, or anything else), inadequate or faulty signage, and any obstructions to a clear view.

3. Contact a Houston bike accident attorney - By contacting an experienced bike accident attorney as soon after your bike accident as possible, you’ll take the most important step toward recovering just compensation for the damages you’ve incurred.

Bike Accidents Cause Dangerous Injuries

When you head out on your bike, you share the road with much larger, heavier, and faster vehicles than your bike, and this leaves you at a decided disadvantage when it comes to safety. In fact, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that, while bike trips constitute only about 1 percent of trips made in the United States each year, bicyclists are far more likely to suffer serious injuries or die in a traffic crash than motorists. In fact, Texas ranked third (second only to Florida and California) for the highest number of bike fatalities in 2015. These statistics should serve as important reminders to make safety your top priority every time you take to the road on your bike.

Because cyclists are so vulnerable to the traffic all around them, they commonly sustain serious injuries in bike accidents, including:

• Severe road rash
• Broken bones
• Traumatic brain injuries
• Blunt force trauma
• Spinal cord injuries
• Death

Your Claim and the Insurance Company

If someone else’s negligence left you injured in a bike accident, you are bound to find an insurance company or two in your future. Bike accidents utterly overwhelm many of their victims, who are tempted to take the path of least resistance and simply allow the insurance company to do what is presumably the insurance company’s job.

Do NOT be one of these people. The most primary point regarding insurance companies is that they are in the business of making money for themselves. They will go to SERIOUS lengths to ensure that they succeed. Your just compensation is FAR from the insurance company’s top priority.

Silence is Golden

You’re NOT obligated to make a statement to the negligent party’s insurance company—and you shouldn’t. Insurance reps are well-trained in the art of tricking accident victims and later using their own words against them. Your attorney will provide the insurance company with any necessary information, and nothing more. While you may need to make a statement to your own insurance provider, your bike accident lawyer will prepare you well for the task.

If You Were Injured in a Bike Accident, Contact a Skilled Houston Bicycle Accident Attorney Today

Houston is great for biking, but the intense traffic and distracted drivers can cause serious injuries to cyclists. If you’re injured in a bike accident that another driver’s negligence caused, you need skilled legal counsel as soon as possible! The dedicated bike accident attorneys at Trust Guss Injury Lawyers in Houston have gone to bat with insurance companies for decades, and we’ll do the same for you by aggressively advocating for your rightful compensation. We’re here to help, so please don’t hesitate to contact or call us today. Consultations are always FREE and we never charge a DIME unless we successfully obtain payment for you.