SUVs and bicycles may potentially share liability for losses when they are involved in accidents on the road. SUVs and bicycles have the road in common when they are both riding on it, although the perspectives of each are very different, depending on where they are sitting. If the driver of the SUV can’t see the person on the bike clearly, no one wins at all.
Imagine sitting in the driver’s seat of a shiny new SUV. You haven’t even creased the pages of the manual yet, but you are off and riding on a winding coast road to, bound to nowhere at all. You are enjoying the height of the cabin of your SUV, and love the way you can see the entire expanse of the road over your massive hood. But I’d like to point out something that is difficult to see. And that is the racing cyclist on your right, riding along with traffic, who is also sharing the road with you.
Many roads in the U.S. have companion bike paths that are available for bicyclists that share the road with cars. Even without a designated bike path, cars and trucks are more than honor bound to recognize and make room for bikes on the road. Some drivers swing around bicyclists, veering deliberately for a few moments into the other lane, to give the cyclist a wide berth. If the cyclist falls off of the bike, hits a rock and teeters into the driving lane or tumbles head over heels into your SUV, you may still bear some liability for that loss. Some issues to consider will be whether the SUV was crowding the cyclist on the road, how close it was to the bicyclist, the speed everyone was going, and whether the driver of the SUV or the cyclist was distracted at the time of the accident.
There are many different types of bicycles on the road today, but there are a few standard bikes that are commonly found nationwide. The basic types are: racing bikes, recumbent, motorized, and rugged mountain bikes. Of these, the recumbent is one of the most unusual bikes to see on the road, and also one of the most hazardous. This is because it is a bike where the rider is in an almost leisure, laid back position on the bike. This is comfortable for the rider and adds little stress to the person’s back while pedaling. But it is potentially hazardous to the SUV driver, who now is in a position of being almost twice as high as the person reclining on the bike, and possibly unlikely to see the recumbent bicyclist sharing the road.
Bicyclist and racing enthusiasts usually know how important it is to be seen when sharing the road with cars and SUVs. If they choose, they can equip their bikes with special safety attachments and accessories to improve safety on the road. These options include gadgets to provide blinking taillights, blinking lights on safety vests, turn indicators, helmets equipped with tiny rear-view mirrors to see cars approaching from behind them, reflective clothing and bike parts, special gears for shifting easily and braking safely, flags, and other safety paraphernalia to make their ride as safe as possible.
If you find that you are either party to an SUV or bicyclist accident, you will want to talk to someone who understands the rights and liabilities of each party. That person is Emery Ledger at Ledger & Associates, and he can be reached at 1-800-300-0001 or online at www.ledgerlaw.com. Call today with any questions that you might have if you have been in this situation or suffered an accident on the road.
