Were you recently injured in a bicycle accident in Port St Lucie, FL? Our experienced Port St. Lucie bicycle accident lawyers at Shiner Law Group are ready to help fight for your legal rights and get the compensation you deserve. Call us today at (772) 777-7700 to speak with an attorney for a 100% free consultation.
You may be entitled to seek compensation for medical bills, loss of income, pain, and suffering, and more. Contact our Port St. Lucie, FL law offices to discuss the legal options that might be available to you following your bicycle accident. The next steps are very important. Let Shiner Law Group help you with your bicycle accident case today.
Were You Injured In A Bicycle Accident In Port St Lucie?
From Spruce Bluff Preserve to Woodstork Trail at Hillmoor Lake Park, Port St. Lucie offers a variety of locations for bike riders to enjoy a relaxing workout. Other bikers may choose to ride their bikes directly on the road as they commute or check out everything the Port St. Lucie area has to offer. Unfortunately, while those trails can offer many opportunities, they can also pose a high risk of an accident.
Did you suffer a bicycle accident in Port St. Lucie due to someone else’s negligence? You may deserve compensation for your injuries. Speak with our Port St Lucie bicycle accident lawyer today at (772) 777-7700 to learn more about your right to compensation.
Shiner Law Group Can Help After Your Port St. Lucie Bicycle Accident
As one of Florida’s leading personal injury law firms, Shiner Law Group has a team of highly dedicated personal injury attorneys who help the victims of serious accidents throughout the Port St. Lucie area seek the compensation they deserve for their injuries. We have a long history of successful claim results, including more than 50 pre-trial settlements, more than 80 successful settlements, and more than 40 claims in which we recovered damages in court.
In one notable bicycle accident claim, we helped our client recover $185,000 in compensation when she suffered serious injuries after a distracted driver failed to stop for a crosswalk. While those results cannot guarantee the results that you will recover after your bicycle accident claim, contact us today to see what we can do for you.
At Shiner Law Group, we aim to help our clients fully understand the compensation they deserve for their injuries and, when possible, maximize the compensation they can seek.
Our team of attorneys:
- Investigates every element of the bicycle accident, including all factors that may have contributed to the accident or its severity.
- Guides our clients through a deeper understanding of the compensation they deserve and should pursue following a severe accident.
- Supports our clients throughout negotiations or a court battle, if needed.
Common Dangers for Port St. Lucie Bicycle Riders
Riding a bicycle through the streets of Port St. Lucie may offer a lot of fun, including a great way to get in some exercise during the day, but it may also pose some serious risk to those riders.
1. Port St. Lucie has a large, dense population.
Port St. Lucie is the seventh-largest city in Florida and the third-largest city in South Florida. Densely populated areas often have better bicycle trails, more opportunities to get around without using the roads, and better overall infrastructure, but they also often have heavier traffic, which can make it harder for bicycle riders to get around safely. With more people on the roads, many bike riders face higher risks.
2. Port St. Lucie attracts a high volume of tourists every year.
Port St. Lucie sees tourists during every season. With an average temperature of 64 even during the coldest periods of the year, which occur in February, Port St. Lucie may bring in visitors who want a way to get away from the snow and ice further north or who want a tropical paradise in which to celebrate their vacations.
Unfortunately, those tourists can also offer a higher degree of danger to Port St. Lucie bicycle riders. Tourists may come from areas with less frequent bicycle traffic, which means they may not automatically lookout for bike riders as they hit the road. Furthermore, tourists may not know the area as well, which can make it harder for them to navigate safely. They also have a higher overall rate of distraction, since they may try to use GPS devices to help them navigate safely to their destinations or struggle with directions as they try to get through neighborhoods in Port St. Lucie.
3. Port St. Lucie and, indeed, the entire Treasure Coast, have seen a rise in bikers.
Many people have turned to biking to reduce stress, burn energy, and get out of the house for a little while. As a result, more bikes than ever appear on the roads. That greater bike traffic density may help Port St. Lucie drivers become more comfortable, overall, with sharing the road with bike riders, but it may also mean that other bikers themselves pose more danger to you as you head out on a biking adventure.
Who Bears Liability for Port St. Lucie Bicycle Accidents?
Bicycle accidents can occur for a variety of reasons, and the cause of the bicycle accident can have a substantial impact on the party that bears liability for it.
A Negligent Driver
Often, negligent drivers bear liability for causing serious bicycle accidents. Some drivers do not safely share the road with bicycle riders: they may try to speed around them to pass, fail to leave adequate space for the bicycle, or aggressively tailgate a bicycle rider, which can raise the risk of a dangerous rear-end collision. Others may simply grow distracted behind the wheel, which can cause them to ignore intersections, change lanes without checking for the presence of a bicycle rider, or open a door straight into the bicycle rider while trying to get out of the car. In the case of negligent driver behavior, the driver often bears liability for the accident.
The Driver’s Employer
Many of the residents of Port St. Lucie rely on delivery drivers to bring them everything from pizza and sandwiches to their groceries. Those delivery drivers may spend more hours on the road than other drivers, which can increase the risk of negligent behavior. Sometimes, their employers may also have policies that can increase the hazards caused by those drivers—for example, they may have tight delivery deadlines they have to meet or feel pressured to increase their speed even during poor weather conditions. If the employer’s policies raise accident risk, the employer may share liability for accidents caused by drivers adhering to those policies.
The Rental Company Where You Rented Your Bike
Port St. Lucie has a range of bike rental shops, where you can pick out a bike to take on an adventure around the city while on vacation or check out different styles of bikes to determine what works for you before purchasing your own. Those bike rental companies must ensure that they provide a safe experience for bikers who choose to rent their bikes, including both residents and guests of the area. Problems with the bike, from wobbly wheels to poorly secured handlebars, can quickly cause serious accidents that may result in serious injuries for the people riding them.
The Manufacturer of a Malfunctioning Vehicle or Bicycle
Mechanical failure can cause potential problems for both bicycles and motor vehicles, many of which can lead to accidents with serious injuries. If a mechanical failure occurs in a vehicle due to improper design or poor parts, the manufacturer of that vehicle may bear liability for the accident.
Common Bicycle Accident Injuries and Their Aftermath in Port St. Lucie
While bicycles have a lot of advantages, they also pose one key disadvantage: they offer no protection against any type of accident. If you fall from your bicycle, you have nothing protecting you from the ground, nor does your bicycle offer you any protection from the driver of a motor vehicle that might hit you. As a result, bicycle accident victims often suffer from severe injuries.
Traumatic Brain Injury
Wearing a bicycle helmet can go a long way toward preventing traumatic brain injury, but it does not eliminate the risk. In many bicycle accidents, the victim may suffer a traumatic brain injury as the head hits the pavement. Traumatic brain injury can pose ongoing problems in the victim’s life: trouble focusing, memory loss, short-term memory challenges, and even emotional regulation problems. Traumatic brain injury can pose an ongoing problem for the victim, since even minor traumatic brain injury may have symptoms that linger more than a year after the bicycle accident.
Broken Bones
Many bicycle accident victims suffer from broken bones caused by the force of the impact. A motor vehicle can break the victim’s ribs or legs directly. Some victims break bones in their hands and arms when they try to catch themselves as they fall forward. Multiple broken bones, in particular, can pose serious challenges as the victim attempts to go about their everyday life. Often, victims with broken bones have trouble engaging in basic self-care tasks, taking care of work responsibilities, or enjoying their usual leisure activities, including biking.
Facial Injuries
A bicycle accident can cause the victim’s face to slam into the pavement, resulting in serious cuts to the face, broken bones in the face, or scrapes that could cause permanent scars. Facial injuries devastate many victims by permanently altering the victim’s appearance.
Road Rash
Many cyclists wear relatively minimal protective gear and clothing, especially on hot summer days in Port St. Lucie. Unfortunately, that lack of clothing can increase the risk of serious road rash: a burn-like injury that removes the protective layer of the skin. Road rash has a high risk of causing the victim to develop serious infections, especially if the victim does not have the injury cleaned out properly.
Back and Neck Injuries
Many cyclists do not realize just how much they rely on their backs and necks until they suffer serious injuries in an accident. Back and neck injuries can cause immense, ongoing pain or limit your mobility, especially if you suffer spinal cord injuries in your bicycle accident.
Determining the Compensation You Should Expect After a Port St. Lucie Bicycle Accident
Following a Port St. Lucie bicycle accident, the compensation you receive through a bicycle accident claim can help you repair your finances in the aftermath of severe losses related to your accident. Many bicycle accident victims do not know how much compensation they should pursue following a bicycle accident. Sometimes, insurance companies will prey on that lack of knowledge, trying to convince you that you should accept a low settlement offer instead of continuing to pursue the compensation you really deserve for your injuries.
At Shiner Law Group, we cannot guarantee the compensation you will recover for bicycle accident injuries in Port St. Lucie, but we can help you break down the financial losses you suffered as a result of your bicycle accident and, in many cases, give you a better idea of how much compensation you should expect. In general, compensation for bicycle accidents will break down into several key categories.
Medical Costs
Did you suffer serious injuries in the accident? If so, you may have equally severe medical costs. Many injuries, including injuries that lead to chronic pain, may require ongoing medical treatment, including procedures, therapy, and follow-up visits with your doctors. Those medical costs will frequently serve as the foundation for your bicycle accident claim.
Lost Income
A bicycle accident can prevent you from going back to work or from completing your usual job duties—and that lost income can leave you scrambling to manage your incoming bills. As part of your bicycle accident claim, you can include compensation for the income you lost as a result of your injuries. If you suffered injuries that will prevent you from ever going back to your previous job or profession, you may also include compensation for lost earning potential.
Pain and Suffering
Your bicycle accident may cause more than just financial losses, and compensation for pain and suffering aims to recognize that. Pain and suffering related to your bicycle accident may include emotional anguish, including loss of enjoyment of life or PTSD, as well as the physical pain you suffered because of your bicycle accident injuries.
Do You Need a Port St. Lucie Bicycle Accident Lawyer?
If you suffered severe injuries in a Port St. Lucie bicycle accident, do not attempt to handle your claim on your own. Instead, contact Shiner Law Group at (772) 777-7700 for a free consultation regarding your bicycle accident.
Port St. Lucie Bicycle Accident Lawyer Review
