Houston Bicycle Accident Lawyers

While Houston has stated its intention to become a Gold-Level Bike-Friendly City for safety and accessibility by 2027, currently bikers face challenges when it comes to safety. In 2020, the city saw 321 crashes, with an increase to 337 bike accidents in 2021. Between 2020 and early 2022, 17 bicyclists lost their lives in motor vehicle accidents.

What is the Impact of Bicycle Accidents?

In motor vehicle accidents, many users of the road have multiple levels of protection. Car occupants, for example, are often protected by airbags, steel, glass, and seatbelts. Truck drivers are protected by the sheer size of their vehicles. However, there is often nothing between a bicyclist and a car, and the biker may be directly hit and then thrown to the roadway. They can even be run over. With nothing but a helmet to protect them, bicyclists are more likely than passenger car and truck occupants to suffer serious injuries, including:

Amputations
Spinal cord and back injuries
Whiplash
Abrasions and scarring
Soft tissue injury
Facial injury
Traumatic brain injury
Burns
Broken bones
Road burn
Strains and Sprains

In addition to the physical injuries survivors sustain after a bicycle accident, it’s not uncommon for them to experience depression, sleeping disorders, anxiety, and other conditions resulting from the emotional trauma of the accident.

What Kinds of Costs Are Associated with Bicycle Accidents?

Since bicyclists are more at risk of serious injury, they may also face higher medical bills and costs. The medical expenses for serious injuries can vary widely. Lifetime costs for amputations can range from an average of $800,000 to $1.81 million and the lifetime costs for burns can range from $707 to $717,306 or higher, depending on severity. Medical costs for any bicycle injury can include emergency care at the scene, ambulance costs, a hospital stay, medication, medical devices such as crutches, visits to specialists and doctors, and follow-up care. Long-term medical costs can include ongoing monitoring and treatment, occupational therapy, physical therapy, mental health support, and other care.

Bicyclists may also need reconstructive surgery to help with scarring and with facial injuries. Often, this is not covered by medical insurance and patients may need to work with a Houston bicycle accident attorney to seek financial recovery to pay for rhinoplasty, oculoplasty, otoplasty, and other reconstructive procedures. These surgeries can cost thousands or tens of thousands of dollars per surgery and multiple operations may be required to fix the injuries.

In addition to medical costs, bicyclists may need to pay for replacement transportation if they are too injured to drive or bike. Taking time off work to heal from an injury or to get medical care can alone cost tens of thousands of dollars or more in lost income. Some injury survivors also face incidental costs. They may need to install a ramp to their home if they need to use a wheelchair, for example, or may need in-home care if they cannot care for themselves due to an injury.

It’s important to consider the total costs of an injury, including possible future costs. It can be too easy to overlook an expense that can end up costing thousands of dollars, which is why working with a Houston bike accident lawyer is important. An experienced attorney has worked on similar cases and knows how much injuries can currently cost in Houston.

What Kind of Legal Recovery May Be Available?

If your bicycle accident and injuries were caused by negligence or someone’s reckless behavior, Texas law allows you to seek financial recovery for both your economic and non-economic losses. Economic losses are those that have a clear money amount. They can include:

Lost wages due to your injury, including any expected future earnings loss
Medical bills, including current future medical expenses, doctor visits, and other medical needs
Property damage, including property repair and replacement costs
Incidental costs, such as the cost of paying for taxis

In addition to the financial losses after an injury, bicyclists who have been injured also face emotional and life-changing personal suffering. To address this, Texas allows those who have been injured by recklessness to also seek recovery for non-economic losses, which can include:

Pain and suffering
Disfigurement
Emotional suffering
Loss of consortium, if injuries affect a survivor’s relationship with their spouse

If an individual is killed in a bicycle accident, their surviving family may be able to pursue a lawsuit to seek financial recovery to help pay for final medical bills, memorial or funeral expenses, and other costs. A wrongful death lawsuit can also help seek recovery for the wages or financial contribution the family member would have made to the household or family.

What’s the Process Like?

Once you have been injured in a bicycle accident, you can work with a Houston bicycle accident attorney to help you with the process of seeking financial recovery. You may be working together for months or even more than a year, so seek out an experienced Houston bike accident lawyer you trust. Since every case is different, the process for recovery also differs, but in general, your bicycle accident attorney in Houston will:

Discuss your situation with you so you understand your options and can make a choice about what to do next.
Investigate the accident and secure evidence.
Properly evaluate how much your losses could be.
Collaborate with experts to determine liability, find liable parties, and establish the facts.
Review any offers or insurance documentation you receive and negotiate with insurers if needed.
File a lawsuit in the appropriate jurisdiction, if you decide to pursue a lawsuit.
Handle the discovery process, which will include sharing and reviewing evidence in the case and preparing you for any depositions or conversations with attorneys for the other parties.
Negotiate any offers from other parties and take part in the mediation process, if required.
Keep you updated about your case.
Go to trial and argue your case before a judge and jury, if you cannot get a fair offer otherwise.
Handle any appeals to the decision.

During the process, one challenge that can arise is that bicyclists may be blamed for causing the crash. This is despite the fact that driver inattention is such an issue in Houston that the Safe Roadways Initiative was launched with police and community partners in 2021 to tackle the problem and even though studies have shown that 56 percent of bicycle accidents are the fault of drivers, not bikers. If you are being unfairly blamed for causing the crash, your attorney can provide legal advice about this situation and gather evidence to establish the true cause of your crash.

How Can Johnson Garcia Help?

Johnson Garcia has more than 30 years of combined experience and has recovered more than $100 in settlements and verdicts for those who have been injured. Johnson Garcia focuses on motor vehicle accidents, including:

In terms of bicycle accidents, we are familiar with the extra challenges survivors of these collisions face. We’ve seen the devastating injuries ourselves in working with our clients. Our goal is always to provide a supportive environment while pursuing fair financial recovery if clients qualify. We make it easy to get in touch with us, thanks to our bilingual staff and 24/7 support.

If you need a bicycle accident attorney Houston has many law firms, but Johnson Garcia stands out for our experience, our results, and our commitment to those who have been injured. Our contingency billing means you can start your lawsuit without worrying about a large legal bill upfront and we’re even willing to meet on Saturdays or evenings if work prevents you from meeting us during business hours. Our team goes out of our way to help.

If you are looking for a bicycle accident attorney Houston County attorneys at Johnson Garcia are ready to speak with you about your options. Schedule a free consultation with our team to discuss your bicycle accident, its causes, and what you may be eligible for in terms of financial recovery.