Bicycle
Case Results

Bicycle Accident – $3,500,000 Brain Damage Settlement

Our bicycle accident lawyers represented a 40-year-old man who was struck by a car while riding his bicycle on the bike path in Lafayette, California. The elderly man who was driving the automobile also struck a telephone pole and died from severe trauma to his chest. Our client, a husband and father of two daughters, sustained a major head injury, including coma, and permanent brain damage. His past medical bills were more than $500,000. Because of his severe brain damage, our client needed to live in a rehabilitation facility or institution. Experts forecasted that he would never return home or to work again. A doctor form Stanford University, hired by the defense attorney for the driver’s estate, claimed that the offending driver had suffered a sudden heart attack before the crash, which would mean that he was not negligent, and therefore not at fault for striking the bicyclist. Our attorney were able to show, through our own experts retained at U. C. San Francisco, who microscopically examined slides of the decedent’s heart tissue, that the heart attack occurred after the crash, when the driver hit the pole. Our bicycle accident attorney achieved a settlement of $3,500,000 against the estate of the driver, after this case was filed in the Contra Costa Superior Court. As a part of our settlement, our attorney negotiated $1,000,000 for the bicycle rider’s wife, for damages for loss of consortium, or loss of the care and comfort and affection of her husband. Also, as a part of the settlement, our attorney negotiated an 80% reduction of the workers compensation lien.

Muni Bus vs. Bicycle Accident – $1,300,000 settlement

Our bicycle accident lawyers represented a 38-year-old man who was run over by a San Francisco Municipal Railway Bus while riding his bicycle on the street in San Francisco, California. The bus driver never stopped although our client was standing still near the curb at a bus stop. The bus driver’s only defense was that he never saw the bicycle rider and that the bicycle rider should not have been standing with his bicycle in the bus stop. Our client sustained fractures to his pelvis with major internal injuries, resulting in loss of sexual function. Our client sought past and future medical expenses as well as past and future income loss and pain and suffering for the injuries and for the loss of his sexual function. Our bicycle accident attorney achieved a settlement of $1,300,000 against the City and County of San Francisco, after this case was filed in the San Francisco Superior Court. As a part of our settlement, our attorney also negotiated an elimination of our client’s medical lien from San Francisco General Hospital.

Bicycle Accident Wrongful Death – $1,000,000.00 Settlement

Ten year old Daniel Pan was run over and killed by a private transit bus while riding his bicycle from the sidewalk into the crosswalk just three doors down from his San Ramon home. Daniel had been riding his bicycle on the sidewalk on the left side of the street. He rode in front of a bus that was making a right turn, and the bus driver did not expect a bicycle rider to cross from her right side. The police report was 100% against the ten year old bicycle rider. All six police officers who responded to the scene blamed the young bicyclist and reported that the bus driver was not at fault. The television reporters all reported that the tragedy was the bicycle rider’s fault.

After meeting Daniel’s heart-broken parents and sister, we undertook our own in-depth investigation, taking the witnesses back to the scene of the bicycle death and videotaping their interviews. We hired experts in accident reconstruction, human factors such as vision and hearing, bus driving and maintenance, bicycle safety, psychology, and forensic photography. We rented an identical bus and hired a child actor who rode the same bicycle at the scene of the bicycle/bus accident and we reconstructed the accident. We filed in Alameda County, where the negligent bus driver lived.

We took a videotaped deposition of the driver of the bus and learned that she was poorly trained and inexperienced. We took the videotaped depositions of all of the witnesses, and learned in great detail everything they could remember. Armed with all of this information, we were able to demonstrate that the bus driver should have expected Daniel to be riding at this intersection because this was the route that many children took home from school at that same time of day. Most importantly, the bus driver should have seen Daniel and had seven seconds to see and perceive him on the sidewalk, and entering the intersection. Although the bus driver blamed a blind spot at the front of the bus, we measured the Daniel’s height and the bicycle, and using the child actor, showed that Daniel was easily visible if the driver had maintained a proper lookout. And we got ready for trial. Finally, just two weeks before trial, the bus company was made accountable.

Bicycle Accident with Truck – $400,000 settlement

Our bicycle accident attorney were able to negotiate a $400,000 settlement for a San Francisco bicycle rider, who was run over by a Bob Tail Truck in San Francisco, California. Our client, who was a San Francisco bicycle messenger, was run over by the front and back wheels of a truck, when the truck driver turned right, directly across the path of the bicyclist. Our client was passing the truck on the right when he was first hit, and he suffered serious fractures to his pelvis, as well as serious internal injuries when he fell under the wheels of the truck. Our client was sure that the truck driver did not use his turn signals and that the truck driver could not have been paying attention. The success for this bicycle accident case depended on whether we could prove that the truck driver had actually run over our client twice, because that would prove that he could not have been watching the road. Our client, who was a 22 year old San Francisco man, sought past and future medical expenses and past and future income loss, as well as pain and suffering. The truck driver said that he had signaled the right turn, denied running over the bicyclist twice, and denied fault because the bicyclist had run a stop sign as he passed the truck. Our bicycle accident attorney, through an accident reconstruction expert, were able to show that the bicycle was actually run over twice, and so we proved that the truck driver could not have been watching as he made the turn. The case was settled after being filed in San Francisco Superior Court. The trucking company was made accountable.

Dangerous Roadway Bicycle Accident – $200,000 settlement

Our bicycle accident lawyers successfully negotiated a settlement of $200,000 for a San Francisco bicycle rider who was caused to fall and to fracture his hip by a dangerous and defective railroad crossing in Napa County, California. While riding his bicycle on the State Highway in Napa, California, our client attempted to cross the Wine Train railroad tracks, which ran across the roadway at a dangerously oblique angle. Absent getting off his recumbent bicycle, there was no way for our client to avoid crossing these dangerous tracks. When his front wheel got caught in the track, our client fell and broke his hip. The State and the owners of the tracks had been arguing for years about which entity was actually responsible for the dangerous condition on the roadway.

We take pride in our track record as attorneys who expose driver negligence and dangerous road conditions and the defective products that endanger bikers. Our efforts in insurance negotiations and courtrooms have enforced accountability for reckless driving behavior and led to roadway improvements as well as enabling injured cyclists to recover badly needed compensation for medical care, lost wages and pain and suffering, and other damages. Call us or fill out our convenient online consultation request form.