Chicago Bicyclist Killed This Morning, Driver Ticketed

A right turning driver struck and killed a bicyclist this morning in Chicago's Noble Square neighborhood, reports The Chicago Tribune. This is the second time this month that a motorist has killed a cyclist in the City.

This morning's death occurred at around 10 a.m. at the intersection of Ashland Avenue and Augusta Boulevard.  Truck driver, Danny Darling, and a male cyclist in his 50s were both traveling westbound on Augusta when they crashed as Mr. Darling allegedly attempted to make a right turn onto Ashland, according to the Tribune.  Chicago police ticketed the driver for making an improper right turn.  The cyclist, whose name has not yet been released, was pronounced dead about a half an hour after the crash.

On October 5th a Chicago bicyclist was killed by a truck on North Wells Street after swerving to avoid a car door opened suddenly into his path.

Driver Smashes Into Commuting Bicyclist In Skokie

There was a moment a shear terror just before being launched into the air by the front end of a Plymouth minivan.  Fear was swept away by pain, and the loud crunch of his helmet breaking against the hard ground.  Confusion flooded in.  What the hell just happened?

At around 8:30 a.m. on October 24th, a 33 year old lab technician was riding his bicycle to work on Lincoln Avenue in Skokie when he was hit by the front end of a 1999 Plymouth Voyager minivan.  The crash occurred mid-block, near 7501 North Lincoln, in front of Sigler's Auto Center.  The minivan driver had shot across four lanes of traffic, attempting to go from the driveway of an apartment complex into the parking lot of Sigler's, when he smashed into the left side of the cyclist, pedaling northbound in the curbside lane.  The impact threw him high into the air before planting him on his head and shoulder on the sidewalk that had been on his right.  He was transported from the scene via ambulance to Skokie Hospital.

The driver admitted that he failed to see the cyclist before attempting his maneuver and was ticketed by police at the scene.  My law firm is representing the injured cyclist.

Chicago Cyclist Is Collateral Damage In Driver's Conquering Of Parking Space

A Chicago cyclist was riding along the right side of the road when a driver traveling in the same direction saw an open parking space along the curb.   He swerved to grab it, turning directly into the bicyclist's path.  Alert, the cyclist grabbed his brakes and avoided a terrible collision with the darting driver's car.

What should have been moment of personal victory for the biker turned into a calamity.  To avoid impact the cyclist had to squeeze his brakes hard.  The sudden stop pitched him over his handlebars and onto the hard tarmac which chewed up his face and fractured his arm.  Police arrived at the scene only to add insult to his injuries, ticketing him for speeding.

The incident occurred before 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 13th along the 1800 block of North Clybourn Avenue.  The 28 year old male bicyclist was riding southbound along the right side of road.  The street was wet but it had stopped raining.  An experienced city cyclist he was not riding fast.  As he approached a 2007 Mazda also traveling south on Clybourn the vehicle suddenly darted into his path in an effort to capture a parking spot along the right curb.  About a bike length away when the driver swerved into his path without signaling, the cyclist squeezed his brakes and flew forward into the street landing on his right arm and face.  After finishing his parking maneuver the driver called 911.

Emergency medical personnel arrived quickly.  The bicyclist was already in the ambulance when he saw the driver speaking with police.  An officer then spoke with him and told him he had concluded that the crash was due to his failure to properly deploy his bike brakes, accusing him of "user error."  He was ticketed for riding too fast, apparently based only upon the driver's description of events.  At the hospital, he was diagnosed with a fractured radius and received sutures to his forehead.

The bicyclist has retained my law firm to represent him.  We will fight the traffic citation as meritless.  The cyclist was not riding too fast.  If he was he would not have been able to avoid impact with the vehicle like he did.  Also, if the driver intends to testify that he saw him riding fast, he may indict himself for swerving carelessly even though he was aware of the cyclist's presence.  We will also pursue a personal injury case against the driver for failing to use his turn signal and for blindly swerving into the bicyclist's path.

Settlement Reached In Bicyclist's Case Against Driver Who Claimed Sun Blinded Him

The driver of an SUV, who claimed that the rising sun prevented him from seeing a bicyclist, has agreed to resolution of a claim brought by my law firm on the cyclist's behalf.  The settlement will compensate the bicyclist for his injuries and enable him to have his custom bicycle rebuilt.

At around 6:30 a.m. on August 7th the male bicyclist was riding west bound on Howard Street on his way to work.  The driver was traveling east bound on the same road when they both entered the intersection with Dodge Avenue in Evanston.  The cyclist should have been easily seen by the driver as they both traveled through the middle of the intersection.  However, the driver of the 2004 Chevy Blazer claims that the morning sun partially blinded him as he began to turn left onto north bound Dodge.  When he did he crashed hard into the left side of the bicyclist.  The impact was so heavy that the rider's left hip left an imprint in the middle of the SUV's front grill.  Unable to walk following the crash, the cyclist was taken to Resurrection St. Francis Hospital later than morning.

The weight of the impact also demolished the man's brand new, custom built Rivendell bicycle, just over a week old.  The bike has been assessed as a total loss, it's steel frame and many of its components badly damaged.

Chicago Bicycle Suffers Serious Leg Injury After Dooring

As the bicyclist lay in the street he looked down at his limb and saw a huge bloody curtain of skin and muscle drawn back revealing the two large bones of his lower right leg.  It seemed as if a shaky surgeon cut a large slab from the side of his leg below the knee.  The instrument of this carnage, however, was a car door.

At around 4:00 p.m. on July 10th, a 34 year old male cyclist was doored on his way home from work on North Lincoln Avenue, just north of West Webster Avenue, in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood. He was pedaling at a leisurely pace in Lincoln Avenue's dedicated bicycle lane when the driver of a 2002 Mitsubishi parked along the curb carelessly open her door just as the cyclist was riding by.  The bottom of the door sliced open the man's leg as he passed and caused him to crash hard to the street.  Thankfully, he avoided being hit by passing vehicles.  The wound to his leg was very serious however.  He was rushed via ambulance to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center where he underwent surgery that evening.

After extensive treatment, the bicyclist retains an ugly scar on his lower leg and suffers from numbness that radiates into his right foot.  He has recovered full use of the leg, however.

My law firm has been retained to represent the bicyclist.

Chicago Bicyclists Gather To Remember Cyclist Killed In Dooring Incident

Chicago cyclists gathered under a gray, somber sky this morning in Old Town to honor and remember Neill Townsend, a bicyclist killed on North Wells Street two weeks ago.  Several members of Neill's family, his friends and many others that never knew him stood in silence in a light drizzle to gaze at a ghost bike placed at the site in his memory. Speakers at the the memorial appealed to those in attendance, and, via members of the media, to the many thousands not in attendance, to never allow deaths like Neill's happen again.  He was killed riding to work in the dedicated bicycle lane near Wells and West Oak Street when a semi tractor trailer ran him down after Neill swerved to avoid a car door carelessly opened into his path by a motorist parked along the curb.  

Now Available In Illinois: Bicycle Insurance

Bicycles are fun, healthy and environmentally neutral.  They are also cheap transportation, particularly in the city where relatively short distances make the use of bicycles to run errands, get to work and drop off the kids very doable.  More often these days it seems that lots of people are forgoing the considerable costs of car ownership and using their bikes, along with public transportation and their own feet, to get around.  Great.  But, one risk that comes with not owning a car is not having car insurance.  If you are injured by a motorist while riding your bike your own auto insurance may provide you with some important protection.  It may protect you if the driver either lacks insurance or has insufficient insurance coverage.  If you do not have health insurance, the medical payment provision of your auto policy may help cover your treatment costs.  Without auto insurance, the bicyclist is more vulnerable to financial calamity should he or she require medical care after being injured by a motorist.

Increasingly, however, there are options out there for the non car owning bicyclist.  One option that has been around for a while is non-owners car insurance.  I have written about that before and I recommend looking into it.  Recently, I became aware of another option available to Illinois cyclists:  Bicycle insurance.  This year one insurance company, Markel American, began offering these policies to cyclists in our state.  The company's website offers the means to get a detailed insurance quote.  Curious, I investigated. What I found was that for $310 a year, $25.83 a month, I could receive $25,000 in "bicycle liability" and "vehicle contact protection." Markel defines bicycle liability coverage as "protection for bodily injury or property damage" for which the insured cyclist becomes liable to another person such as a pedestrian, another bicyclist, or motorist.  Vehicle contact protection is coverage to benefit the bicyclist should he or she be injured by an uninsured or underinsured driver.  That $310 price also includes $10,000 in medical payments coverage defined by Markel as coverage providing "protection for the reasonable charges for necessary medical, surgical, x-ray, dental, ambulance, hospital and professional nursing services and funeral service expenses incurred within one year form the date of an accident causing bodily injury to an insured while using an insured bicycle."  Generally, the insured may receive compensation under a medical payments provision of an insurance policy regardless of who was at fault for causing his or her injuries.  The quote I received also provided some nice benefits should the insured bicycle become damaged in a crash.

What Markel is offering sounds good.  However, whether it really is good will of course depend upon how it works in action.  Will the company honor its promise to a bicyclist that purchases one of its bicycle insurance policies?  I really do not know anything about Markel nor, to the best of my recollection, have I dealt with them on any claim or case I have worked on over the past 16 or so years.  Please do not accept anything I have written here as an endorsement of Markel or any service or policy it provides.  I encourage readers to investigate for themselves whether purchasing one of its bicycle insurance policies makes sense for them.  I invite anyone who does purchase a policy to comment on this blog about their experience, whether good or bad.