This photo is from a Jeep/Bike crash.

The crash happened on a 2 way city street – a very WIDE and unusual street, as discussed below.

The 18 yr old Jeep driver tried to pass the cyclist and struck him at, probably, 40+mph. You can see the point of impact next to the headlight and the subsequent points of contact on the front fender, mirror, rear door… there’s also a big dent in the A pillar from, probably, the client’s helmeted head, which led to a significant TBI – the rider suffered catastrophic injuries here….

On top of that, Jake at the Simply Fabulous Insurance Company advised us that they were DENYING the claim on Day 3, while the client was still in a coma.

Why?

Well, the police decided upon 5 minutes or so of their arrival that …!!TA DA!!… the cyclist was at fault for a “suicide swerve” during a “U-Turn” – this came from an “eye witness” who was 150+ feet away, coming in the opposite direction, around a blind curve… but … I digress…

After the impact, the Kid in the Jeep went left of center, hopped a curb and slammed the Jeep into some short concrete steps in the front yard of a house.

When the Kid got out and came back to where the cyclist was lying in the road a witness indicated he said “What happened?” But, after the crash, while the police were milling around, the witness huddled up with the Kid and …!!TA DA!!… when the kid told police his story it matched the witness… suicide swerve/U-turn… How about that?

However, the Kid also told police that he had sped up to pass, exceeding the 35 mph speed limit… which was helpful in the end. He also admitted the pass attempt occurred in an intersection – a No No under state traffic law… As for Ohio’s the three foot law, he was kind of stuck… was he giving the rider 3′ and the rider “suddenly swerved” to the left MORE than 3 feet? That seemed a bit far fetched… but the cops didn’t really inquire – they took the word of the “eye witness” that there was some kind of suicide swerve & wrote it up that way.

Police DID map the scene using the Total Station. The Total Station is like a laser-guided surveying device. Once it is properly set up police will take measurements of different critical pieces of a scene to generate data that can be used to prepare a scale replica. This takes the scene image from the old school “NOT TO SCALE” pen/straight edge to the 21st century where you have a laser-measured scale drawing.

The client’s brother had been in a bad bike crash down in Georgia some years earlier &, while the client was still in a coma, the client’s wife got a referral from the Georgia bike lawyer to… !!TA DA!! us here at the Ohio Bike Lawyer’s World HQ high atop Mt. BikeMore –

I brought in Chris Carville, the Kentucky Bike Lawyer – we co-counseled this case.

Since SF denied the claim they also denied us the opportunity to inspect the car so we sued immediately & obtained a TRO – Temp Restraining Order – prohibiting any work on the Jeep until our expert could inspect it.

We also had our expert examine the bike and, more importantly, the client’s GPS, which police…!!TA DA!! … IGNORED…

The Garmin was a Gold Mine…

We spent two years aggressively litigating this case. We sued the driver, the Kid, and his mom, who owned the car. We also sued the client’s UM carrier, which ended up being the same company that insured the vehicle. The case was… vigorously… defended by defense counsel with whom we were quite familiar. This is helpful, I think. They knew us, we knew them. They knew we knew what we were doing on this bike stuff and we knew they knew how to defend and work a case.

Extracting phone data is complex and we eventually negotiated a protocol to obtain the Kid’s phone data which was… also a Gold Mine. The data showed… !!TA DA!!… the Kid was TEXTING HIS GF right around the time of the crash…

We also obtained 40+ hours of cruiser/body cam footage. This proved to be extremely helpful for unexpected reasons.

Because police decided early on that this was NOT going to be a situation leading to any criminal “charges” we believe they were far more lackadaisical in their data/evidence collection than if they were thinking about felony traffic charges. We found critical witnesses on the body cam who were not even mentioned in the 50 page crash report. One Key witness, for us, was simply … !!TA DA!! … completely IGNORED by police. He was questioned for less than 20 seconds – gave his name and told police he was coming the opposite direction from the cyclist & Jeep. He said he was near/next to the crash scene when he HEARD the big impact. He looked in his mirror and saw our client flying in the air!

He stopped his car, got out & ran back. Meanwhile, the Kid had gone left of center and crashed the Jeep into a couple concrete steps in the front yard of a house 100+ feet down the road from the point of impact. The Kid came back to where our client was lying in the street [about where the helmet is placed in the photo] and said “what happened?” -He didn’t know what had happened…

In the photo above you can see how far down the Jeep ended up. You can also see the van-type vehicle sitting first in line. This was the “eye witness” – a word I keep putting in quotes because we came to seriously question what exactly the eyes of this witness could have possibly seen. As you can see by the line of traffic, the road bends around under the overpass. The van was coming out from under the overpass before the crash – the driver said he stopped where the van is shown as the Kid drove the Jeep into his lane. The Jeep hopped the curb and hit the steps. So how much of the critical seconds leading up to the crash could the driver of the van have seen? Virtually nothing.

After the crash, while the police were milling about, the Kid huddled up with the witness who said the cyclist “swerved” into the car during a “U-turn.” They were talking several minutes. One of the officers noticed this and pointed it out. She felt the two could be cooking up a story, and the body cam picked up her concerns – but the officer in charge didn’t seem concerned…they had already decided it was the cyclist’s fault and when they finally asked the Kid what happened … -suddenly the kid said the same thing as the guy in the van – the rider did a suicide swerve in a U-turn… !!TA DA!! See… Kid’s OK, Cyclist is at Fault…

As we dug into the police video we saw that one Cruiser cam angle also showed, in the background, the Kid’s dad getting 2 big dogs out of the car.

As the case developed we learned what the Kid had been doing that day through depositions, and a review of his phone data. The Kid was a senior in high school and this had been an off day so he was at home. Dad had gone to his shop/office with the 2 dogs. Dad called the Kid & asked him to come to the shop to A/pick up the dogs and B/pick up some tax forms to take to the CPA. Because much of this was set up through text messages we have a pretty good timeline.

The Kid had picked the dogs up from Dad a few minutes before the crash along w some papers he was taking to a CPA. From Dad’s shop to the crash site was less than 5 minutes. The crash time, on the police report, was listed at 1345. This ended up be a VERY important data point.

The Kid had a map app open on his phone to help him get to the CPA office. His phone was likely mounted in a cradle that was stuck to the top of the dash, further blocking his view of the right side of the lane ahead, where the cyclist was riding.

In a deposition 2 years after the crash the Kid initially said he thought the dogs were in the back end of the Jeep, but … we had a photo from police showing the back was filled w golf clubs and sports gear & he had to admit the dogs were closer. In fact, the cruiser cam video showed one of the dogs getting out of the FRONT seat.

Combining the phone data and time stamps with the GPS data, 911 calls and police officer’s laser mapping [confirmed by our expert’s own laser mapping] along with the testimony of our newly witness about the car in the opposite lane & the Kid’s admission of speeding and passing in an intersection, we were able to put an animation together for Mediation showing how easily the kid in the Jeep could have AVOIDED the crash by…gasp… paying attention and slowing down.

The video shows the path of the car, at different speeds, and the path of the BIKE mapped out through GPS coordinates. It shows them meeting at the spot that our expert determined was the point of impact.

The geography of the area also came into play here. As noted above, the street here was both “wide & unique.” The street had 20 FOOT lane width on both sides- highly unusual for a city street… However, this street was unique in that the eastbound lane, where the Jeep and bike was traveling, actually ENDED and the road turned into an on-ramp for a higher speed limited access highway where bikes are not permitted. The west bound lane actually started at the end of an OFF ramp from the same limited access highway.

This aerial shows in red path of the witness, the client on the bike and the Jeep. The witness coming from the offramp. The bike’s path was right to left towards a left turn into the side street. The Jeep’s path was coming from behind the bike. The length of the lines represent the approximate distance traveled by each vehicle in the final FOUR SECONDS before impact.

Clearly, the client’s intent was NOT to go up onto the limited access highway where bikes were banned. The client’s right-to-left movement on the bicycle during that final four seconds was consistent his lawfully riding “to the right” initially and then preparing for a left turn across the oncoming lane and into the small, short dead-end side street shown in the video. In fact, the client’s GPS had mapped out MANY prior rides over this same route where the client had made a left turn into the side street to turn around and go back the other way.

The client had no memory of the crash or his intent or actions. His only memory was of the bicycle suddenly being shoved out from underneath him & him being in the air… His next memory is several days later… without the high tech bike GPS data providing us with a window into his movement we very well may have struck out in this case.

However, with all the data we accumulated, we were able to retain experts to powerfully show that the Kid was likely distracted- he had the 2 big dogs- he was reading texts FROM his girlfriend – his last text TO her prior to the crash said “Have dogs in the car with me wanted to show” -this text was sent at 1:45 – the exact time listed as the time of the crash in the police report. We argued that he was clearly lining up a selfie with the dogs, or preparing a video call or some other way of “showing” her the dogs. He was likely on the very wide street where the crash occurred when he sent that last text and may have been surprised to realize:
– Hey there’s a cyclist
– Hey there’s a car coming in the opposite direction
– Hey I have to EXIT up here so the lane next to me is going to go away
– Hey that cyclist is moving right to left
– Hey, I’d better speed up and pass, but I can’t go over too far to the left because there’s a car coming but I have to get by quickly and get back in my lane to get up on the on ramp so I’ll just squeeze between this cyclist & the oncoming car…

So he speeds up – to a speed exceeding the speed limit – and he clobbers the cyclist, who has the right of way and the right to make his left turn after the oncoming car goes by.

Had the Kid simply realized a couple seconds EARLIER in the traffic game what he was facing ahead he could have slowed down…for a SECOND OF TWO… and passed safely – There was 15-20 feet of wide open space to the RIGHT of our client at that point, but the Kid was negligently committed to passing… Had the Kid been paying attention our client would NOT have suffered life changing, catastrophic injuries…

Combined with the speeding admission, passing in an intersection, failing to give 3 feet of clearance, having 2 bigs dogs running free, and other admissions of careless behavior, we were able to make a very strong argument that the kid was negligent… & that our client was NOT!

We also aggressively worked up the Damages side of the case, retaining experts to review the medical side of the head to toe neurological and orthopedic injuries… we had animations put together using the 3-D imagery done during MRI and CT scans at the hospital – amazing stuff that showed how very badly the client’s hip, shoulder & scapula were permanently maimed in this crash…

In the end we mediated the case and SF went from “We Ain’t Payin'” to “How Much…” and a significant figure was paid to resolve the claim.

Some [bad] numbers about driving in the US…
Car crashes now kill OVER 40,000 people every year in America – car crashes have become one of the leading causes of death in this country. There are some 6,000,000 car crashes every year that result in injuries and property damage (and we wonder why auto insurance costs so much).

CRASH DATA FROM FARS/NHTSA:
~ 19,937 motor vehicle crashes occur every day in the United States.
– There are around 118 deaths caused by auto accidents each and every day. Imagine a 120 seat airplane crashing…due to negligent pilot behavior… every day

Injuries: An estimated 6,849 injuries happen each day due to car accidents.

In 2022, a total of 42,514 fatal car accidents occurred on roadways across the United States. Another 1,664,598 crashes resulted in injuries and 4,226,677 caused property damage. In all, the number of police-reported crashes that year hit 5,930,496. – Forbes

From 2018 to 2022, the number of deadly accidents in the United States increased by more than 16% — from 36,835 fatal car crashes in 2018 to 42,795 fatal car crashes in 2022. 41,000 people were killed in US car crashes last year (2023). – USA Today

NHTSA has now published 2023 FARS data and the numbers are NOT any better. In the 30 years from 1994-2023 a total of 1,176,187 people have been KILLED on US Roads. That many people would be the 10th largest city in the US…

Ohio is seeing comparable problems – 1100 people are killed on Ohio roads each year. There are 250,000 car crashes involving over 500,000 people.

Traffic Deaths bottomed out in the US around 2010, dipping just slightly below 33,000 for a couple years and then started climbing, and climbing and CLIMBING. From 32,479 in 2011 to 42,471 in 2022. 9,992 more deaths today than in 2011 a whopping THIRTY PERCENT INCREASE in a decade

Why?

That’s worth studying – social media started, and blew up in this time period… as did the development & sale of phones capable of doing a lot more than making phone calls. Suddenly, from your car, you could receive & review a fax or spreadsheet, search the World Wide Web, go online to look at a menu, watch TV or a Movie, take a photo or video, download data, upload to any of the dozens of media pages… all while “DRIVING”… and did car makers take steps to stop this? Ummm… NO… the InfoTainment systems that used to just play music now have screens the size of large iPads and have become CRASHerTainment systems…

The bottom line is that people SUCK at driving cars – they run into buildings – poles- curbs- other cars and people on bikes or motorcycles, as well as people just walking around – People in the US drive their cars so poorly that they are killing others in record numbers… it’s more than an issue, it is a public health problem.
What’s the answer?
I’m not “carceral” per se, but I think if people knew there would be STIFF punishments for careless driving they’d be more…careful… but that’s just me…

In some places there is so much concern for E-BIKES that they are passing local laws prohibiting them, or allowing forfeiture/impoundment… I’m really NOT against that…for cars…

Perhaps just having in the law the ability of LEOs or the Courts so simply lock up their cars for a time will slow folks down – I dunno – SPEED is clearly the problem. Speed KILLS… and the current “system” of safety by ticketing is failing everyone…and the answer is NOT “get everyone ELSE off the roads so cars can go even faster” – the answer is slowing down traffic so motorists kill and maim fewer people – if allowing the government to impound cars for a specified term gets that job done, I’m all for it…

While I was in DC many years ago for the National Bike Summit I met Eleanor McMahon, a Canadian visitor who tagged along with the Ohio contingent. Her story was a very sad one. Her husband was a cyclist, and police officer, who was killed while riding [off duty] on the road. The motorist was not licensed. He had over 5 license suspensions – and multiple crashes. She did some research that showed an extraordinary percentage of people drive on suspended licenses. She developed a bill called Greg’s Law, after her husband. This bill substantially upped the penalties for repeat offenders – fines up to $50,000 – and imposed a 7-day Impoundment of the offender’s vehicle. Sort of a cooling off period, which has been effective. Eleanor was a very effective advocate for us in DC and for her constituents later when she was elected to government in Canada!

We are in the process of tweaking the Ohio BikeLawyer website- www.OhioBIkeLawyer.com

As part of that process I like to search for other Bike Law pages for other lawyers locally, throughout Ohio and around the country and see what they are doing.

Some folks have very sophisticated, professional pages – tremendous pages- something for us to strive for – The NYC BikeLawyer, Dan Flanzig and Flanzig-New York Bike Lawyers has a great page. The folks at Bike Law do a great job. Many Type A “bike lawyers” come at this from the hardcore tri/race scene – some are more casual. You can tell who actually rides and has some passion for protecting your right to ride and the ones who …well… are just trolling for cases…

Let’s just say that there are many lawyers out there trying to capture “bike crash cases” using very routine marketing efforts – their consultants told them “You need a page on bike crashes” and then sold them a cookie cutter webspage that might SAY “We do Bike Cases” but you can tell they couldn’t tell a disk brake from a derailleur. They often cite some out of date statistics, list some typical”causes” of crashes [speeding, distraction, drugs, etc] , have a list of “injuries” designed to be captured searches [“bike crash brain injury” – “Fractures” “Nerve Damage”] and feature a photo of a smashed up bike that they purchased from Getty.

A few examples below. These are from several different local and statewide law firms – each misstates Ohio or local law – or implies that riding in traffic is super dangerous, or more dangerous than riding, say, on the sidewalk.

This bit of data simply misstates Cincinnati’s sidewalk law and then implies that riding on the ROAD…GASP… put you in DANGER…

Here’s another example that implies that you are “forced to ride bumper to bumper” with cars and trucks if there is no bike lane… dude… there are NO BIKE LANES ON 99% of the Roads in Ohio… yet, we RIDE on 99% of the roads in Ohio …every day… generally very SAFELY interacting with cars. When people don’t do STUPID/CARELESS things we can safely ride with traffic, in traffic… remember the mantra? Cycling Savvy folks will remind us that:

WE ARE TRAFFIC

These law firms & their marketing consultants don’t understand that road cyclists generally KNOW what they are doing – they know the law- they protect themselves & work at riding safely- these lawyers and their consultants develop webpages that basically treat road cyclists like they’re 10 yr olds darting in and out of traffic…

One of the worst is the last photo listed. It’s from a “big name” Ohio injury law firm – and it completely MISSTATES Ohio law – I mean gets it 100% BACKWARDS in a way that I didn’t even think was conceivable.

They claim it is UNLAWFUL for a cyclist to pass traffic on the right…this is FALSE –

But the bigger deal is that they claim that:
–>” If the lane is too narrow to safely travel side by side, SINGLE FILE RULES MUST BE FOLLOWED”

Say WHAT?

Dude- did you even READ the statute – do you have any CLUE what you are talking about?

Clearly these folks and their marketing teams need to take my BIKE LAW 101 seminar for lawyers & judges. I spend 2-3 hours going over Ohio Bike Law, bike crash scenarios and key elements of Bike Crash cases that are different and more challenging than run-of-the-mill crash/injury claims. Maybe I’ll send them some of our Ohio/Kentucky BIKE LAW cards…

We [the Ohio Bicycle Federation] fought HARD for YEARS to get 4511.55(C) added to the Ohio Revised Code as part of the 2006 Better Bicycling Bill. I helped write that revision – it adds a SECRET WEAPON to our legal arsenal – the “Too Narrow” provision that ALLOWS US TO TAKE THE LANE- These YaHoos would have you think the “too narrow” provision MANDATES SINGLE FILE RIDING… Sheesh – I may need a drink… that is just DUMB

I helped write 4511.55C and all the other 2006 changes in the law that were adopted by the legislature – I argued for the passage of the bill before the Ohio legislature. I THINK I know a bit more about Ohio Bike Law than most folks… SO I think you can take THIS to the bank:

=> 4511.55C does NOT mandate single file riding- completely the OPPOSITE.

=> 4511.55C is an EXCEPTION to the AFRAP Rule. An exception to 4511.55A.

=>4511.55A mandates riding “as near to the right side of the roadway as practicable” – 4511.55B is the part of the statute that allows riding two abreast EVERYWHERE.

=> 4511.55C says that you DON’T HAVE TO RIDE OVER TO THE RIGHT IF THE LANE IS TOO NARROW. It has NOTHING TO DO with the two abreast rule – single file riding is NEVER MANDATED under Ohio Law.

=> 4511.55C is a LANE POSITION statute that modifies the AFRAP rule found in 4511.55A & it gives you the legal right to TAKE THE LANE and use ANY LANE POSITION YOU WANT when the lane is too narrow to be shared by the bike & a MOTOR VEHICLE…

Maybe instead of a Cookie Cutter lawyer you need to find yourself a good BIKE LAWYER if you are injured while riding your bike! Somebody who KNOWS the law – who helped WRITE the law – who has been protecting YOUR RIGHT to the road and arguing with insurance companies and their lawyers over The BIKE LAW for some 40+ years!

Needless to say – OUR New & Improved & Revised Ohio BikeLawyer website will NOT be misquoting ANY of Ohio’s bike laws. I have helped write and pass many of the current laws. A few years ago I was retained by ODOT for a project for ODOT which involved a complete review & analysis of EVERY bicycling and pedestrian statute.

These lawyers are not stupid – they are a hot shot firm representing injured people. They handle big and small injury and death cases. They DON’T DO a lot of bike cases, but they see them as a Target Market – they want the cases without doing the deep dive to really understand what makes them unique.

There are lawyers advertising for bike case who are apparently lazy when it comes to posting on BIKE Law – they treat cyclists as a product who are too stupid to understand the law – they did a quick one-time read through of 4511.55 and completely misinterpreted the law and then put it out on the “Bike Crash” webpage for all to see…

Bottom Line – CHOOSE WISELY when choosing a lawyer or law firm to represent YOU and protect YOU in the event of a serious bicycle/bike crash!