Bicycle Accidents

California Bicycle & E-Bike Accident Attorneys

Hurt on a bicycle or e-bike? Here is what to know.

• Yaghmai Law Firm represents cyclists, e-bike riders, and their families in Los Angeles, Sherman Oaks, and the San Fernando Valley.
• We handle car-versus-bike crashes, dooring collisions, hit-and-run incidents, unsafe-pass and right-hook crashes, and serious e-bike injuries.
• California gives you two years from the date of the crash to file a personal injury claim under CCP Section 335.1; for fatal cases, wrongful death claims must also be filed within two years.
• No fees unless we recover compensation. Free case review.
• Call or text (888) 800-6731 or submit your case online.

A bicycle accident lawyer Los Angeles cyclists count on knows California Vehicle Code Section 21760, the Three Feet for Safety Act, and how to use it. A bicycle gives a rider almost none of the protection a car gives a driver. When a motor vehicle and a cyclist collide, the cyclist absorbs nearly all of the force. Broken bones, severe road rash, internal injuries, and traumatic brain injuries are routine outcomes, even at moderate speeds. Yaghmai Law Firm represents personal injury clients across Los Angeles, Sherman Oaks, and the San Fernando Valley after car-versus-bicycle crashes, dooring incidents, unsafe-pass collisions, hit-and-run drivers, and serious e-bike crashes.

California treats a person on a bicycle as a driver, not a guest on the road. Under California Vehicle Code Section 21200, a cyclist on a highway has all the rights and is subject to all the duties of a vehicle driver. That status carries real weight in a claim: a driver who fails to give a cyclist three feet of clearance, opens a door into the bike lane, or turns across a cyclist’s path is breaching specific duties the Vehicle Code spells out. We use those Vehicle Code violations as the backbone of liability, then drive the value of the claim with the medical record, lost income, and the long tail of recovery that bicycle injuries usually carry.

No Win, No Fee — You Pay Nothing Up Front

We handle bicycle accident cases on a contingency-fee basis. There is no retainer, no hourly bill, and no out-of-pocket cost for the investigation, medical records, or expert work the case requires. Our fee comes only out of the recovery we obtain — either through a settlement with the at-fault driver’s insurer or, when needed, through a verdict at trial. If there is no recovery, you owe us nothing. That structure exists for a reason: cyclists are often badly injured, out of work, and squeezed by medical bills the moment they need a lawyer. The fee should not be the thing that decides whether you can ask for help.

Types of Bicycle Accident Cases We Handle

Bicycle crashes look very different from car crashes, and the legal theory shifts with the facts. We routinely handle:

• Driver-versus-cyclist collisions on the roadway. Failure to yield, unsafe lane change, left-turn across the cyclist’s path, and right-hook turns at intersections and driveways.
• Unsafe-pass and “Three Feet” violations. Drivers who buzz a cyclist closer than three feet, or who refuse to slow when the lane is too narrow to pass safely.
• Dooring crashes. A parked driver or passenger opens a door into the path of a cyclist riding on the traffic side of the vehicle.
• Hit-and-run cyclist cases. The driver flees the scene. We pursue every available defendant and the cyclist’s own uninsured-motorist coverage when applicable.
• E-bike crashes (Class 1, Class 2, and Class 3). Higher speeds, heavier bikes, and a tangle of operating rules make e-bike crashes their own category.
• Crashes caused by dangerous road conditions. Potholes, missing signage, defective bike-lane markings, and unsafe construction zones — these claims often involve a public-entity defendant and a six-month government-claim deadline.
• Serious brain and spinal injuries. When a cyclist sustains a head injury, see our brain injury lawyer page for how we work up TBI claims.
• Fatal bicycle crashes. When a cyclist does not survive, we represent the family in a wrongful death action.

Common Causes of Bicycle Accidents in California

Most cyclist injuries trace to a small set of driver behaviors and a handful of road-design failures. The recurring patterns we see in Los Angeles cases:

• Drivers turning across the cyclist’s path. Left turns across the oncoming bike lane and right hooks across the parallel bike lane at intersections and driveways.
• Unsafe passing. A driver overtakes the cyclist with less than three feet of clearance, or refuses to slow when the lane is too narrow to pass safely (a direct CVC 21760 violation).
• Dooring. A driver or passenger swings the door open into the bike lane or the traffic-side travel lane without checking (a direct CVC 22517 violation).
• Distracted drivers. Texting, hands-free overreliance, and phone-based navigation pull the driver’s eyes off the cyclist long enough for a fatal sequence to start.
• Impaired drivers. Alcohol, cannabis, and prescription impairment under California DUI law.
• Hit-and-run drivers. Especially common in low-light and lane-share conditions.
• Truck and bus blind spots. Right-turning trucks and transit buses overlooking a cyclist beside the cab. See our truck accident lawyer page for the FMCSA framework that often applies.
• Motorcycle-versus-bicycle conflicts at lane edges. See our motorcycle accident lawyer page for the lane-positioning issues that overlap with cyclist cases.
• Pedestrian-versus-cyclist crashes on shared paths. See our pedestrian accident attorney page for the right-of-way framework that controls on mixed-use paths.
• Dangerous road conditions. Bike-lane potholes, abrupt pavement drop-offs, missing or defaced signage, and construction zones without safe cyclist detours.

Common Injuries in Bicycle Accidents

The injury list in a bike case tends to be longer and more severe than a typical low-speed car case — there is no airbag, no crumple zone, and no seat belt between the cyclist and the pavement or the vehicle that struck them. Patterns we see most often:

• Traumatic brain injury and concussion. Even a helmeted cyclist can sustain a serious TBI. We work these claims up with neurologists, neuropsychologists, and life-care planners. See our brain injury lawyer page.
• Facial fractures and dental injury. Common when the cyclist goes over the handlebars or strikes the hood of a vehicle.
• Spinal cord and back injuries. Herniated discs, vertebral fractures, and in the worst cases paralysis.
• Clavicle, scapula, rib, wrist, and hip fractures. Routine in cyclist falls onto pavement.
• Severe road rash. Often requires debridement, skin grafting, and leaves permanent scarring — a real non-economic damages driver.
• Internal organ injury. Splenic, liver, and kidney injuries from blunt-force impact.
• Knee, shoulder, and rotator-cuff injuries. Often surgical and slow to resolve.
• Death. Fatal outcomes are tragically common in cyclist-versus-motor-vehicle crashes. We pursue these claims for surviving family members under California’s wrongful death framework.

What Is a Bicycle Accident Case Worth?

The value of a bicycle accident claim depends on the depth of the medical workup, the length of the recovery, the cyclist’s lost income, and the strength of the liability evidence against the driver. The categories we build a claim around:

• Past and future medical expenses. ER and trauma admission, imaging, surgery, hardware, follow-up orthopedic and neurology care, physical therapy, mental-health treatment, and life-care needs for catastrophic outcomes.
• Past and future lost earnings and loss of earning capacity. Time off during recovery, plus permanent reductions in work capacity when the injury is severe.
• Pain, suffering, scarring, and disfigurement. Road rash, surgical scarring, and the daily quality-of-life impact of a cycling injury — loss of the ability to ride, to exercise, to commute by bike.
• Property damage. The bicycle, helmet, gear, electronics, and any other equipment damaged in the crash.
• Uninsured/underinsured motorist (UM/UIM) recovery. California Insurance Code Section 11580.2 covers a cyclist struck by an at-fault uninsured or underinsured motor vehicle through the cyclist’s own auto policy, even though the cyclist was not in a car at the time of the crash. This is the most common path to recovery in hit-and-run cases.
• Punitive damages. Available against drunk drivers and other defendants whose conduct was malicious, oppressive, or in conscious disregard of safety.

Liability defenses we expect and plan for: the driver will argue the cyclist swerved, ran the light, was riding outside the bike lane, was not wearing a helmet, or was on an unregistered e-bike. California is a pure comparative fault state under Li v. Yellow Cab Co. (1975) 13 Cal.3d 804, so even when some fault is assigned to the cyclist, the recovery is reduced but not barred.

California Law — Cyclist Rights and Driver Duties

The California Vehicle Code spells out what a driver owes a cyclist, what a cyclist owes other road users, and where the lines fall. The provisions that come up in almost every bicycle accident claim:

• CVC Section 21200 — Cyclists have full vehicle status. A person riding a bicycle on a highway has all the rights and is subject to all the provisions applicable to the driver of a vehicle. The same DUI and traffic rules that bind a driver also bind a cyclist.
• CVC Section 21202 — Right-side riding (with exceptions). A cyclist moving slower than the surrounding traffic on a roadway must ride as close as practicable to the right-hand curb or edge of the roadway, except when overtaking, preparing for a left turn, avoiding hazards or fixed/moving objects, or operating in a substandard-width lane that is too narrow for a car and a bike to share safely.
• CVC Section 21208 — Bike lane use. Where a roadway has a designated bike lane, a cyclist moving slower than traffic must ride within the lane, subject to the same overtaking/left-turn/hazard/right-turn exceptions.
• CVC Section 21650.1 — No riding against traffic on the roadway. A bicycle on a roadway or the shoulder of a highway must be operated in the same direction as vehicles. Sidewalk riding is controlled by local ordinance rather than this section.
• CVC Section 21760 — The Three Feet for Safety Act. A driver overtaking a cyclist proceeding in the same direction must pass at a safe distance and may not pass at a distance of less than three feet between any part of the vehicle and any part of the cyclist or the bicycle. If the lane is too narrow to pass safely with three feet of clearance, the driver must either change lanes when one is available or slow to a speed that is reasonable and prudent and only pass when doing so will not endanger the cyclist. Originally enacted by AB 1371 and effective September 16, 2014; amended by AB 1909 effective January 1, 2023, to require a lane change when another lane is available.
• CVC Section 22517 — The dooring statute. No person shall open the door of a vehicle on the side available to moving traffic unless it is reasonably safe to do so and can be done without interfering with the movement of such traffic. This is the controlling rule in dooring cases against drivers and passengers.
• CVC Section 21212 — Helmet rule. A bicycle helmet is mandatory in California only for riders under 18 years of age. For adults, helmet use is strongly recommended but not legally required, and failure to wear one does not defeat the claim. Class 3 e-bike riders and passengers are required to wear a helmet at every age (CVC 21213(b)).
• CVC Section 312.5 and Section 21213 — E-bike classes. California defines three e-bike classes: Class 1 (pedal-assist only, motor cuts off at 20 mph), Class 2 (throttle permitted, motor cuts off at 20 mph), and Class 3 (pedal-assist only, motor cuts off at 28 mph, speedometer required). Class 3 e-bike operation is restricted to riders 16 and older, and Class 3 riders and passengers must wear a helmet regardless of age.
• CVC Sections 20001 and 20002 — Hit-and-run. A driver involved in a crash involving injury or death must stop, render aid, and exchange information (CVC 20001); a driver involved in a crash with property damage must stop and exchange information or notify the property owner (CVC 20002). Fleeing the scene is a separate criminal offense and supports civil punitive-damage exposure.
• Insurance Code Section 11580.2 — UM/UIM for cyclists. Uninsured-motorist coverage on the cyclist’s own auto policy covers a cyclist who is struck by an uninsured or hit-and-run motor vehicle, even though the cyclist was not in or on a car at the time. This statute does not require the insured to have been occupying a motor vehicle.
• CCP Section 335.1 — Two-year statute of limitations. A personal injury action arising from a bicycle accident must be filed within two years of the date of injury. Wrongful death claims arising from a fatal bicycle crash are also two years.
• Pure comparative fault. Under Li v. Yellow Cab Co. (1975) 13 Cal.3d 804, California is a pure comparative-fault state. A cyclist who is partly at fault — rode without a helmet (as an adult), drifted out of the bike lane, missed a hand signal — still recovers a percentage of the damages.
• Government-entity claims — six-month deadline. If a public entity is a defendant (dangerous road conditions, missing signage, defective bike-lane design, public-transit vehicle), California Government Code Section 911.2 requires a written government claim within six months of the incident. Missing that deadline can end the case.

Why Yaghmai Law for a Bicycle Accident Case

Cyclists are at an evidentiary disadvantage from the moment the police arrive. The driver almost always has the louder voice at the scene, more cooperative insurance representation behind them, and an instinctive cultural advantage with adjusters and jurors who assume the cyclist did something to provoke the crash. Our job is to flip that. We work the Vehicle Code violations as negligence per se, lock down independent witnesses, pull bus and rideshare dashcam, request signal-timing and intersection-camera data, and document the medical workup so the value of the case reflects the real cost of the injury — not the lowball valuation the insurer assigns reflexively to bicycle claims.

“Cyclists do not have crumple zones or airbags, so the medical record is going to be ugly even when the legal case is strong. I treat every bicycle case as if it will be tried — statute-by-statute negligence, full medical workup, accident reconstruction when it matters, and a real damages story that explains what the client lost and is still losing. Defendants settle these cases for fair value when they see the file is built to a verdict.”

— Houtan Yaghmai, Esq., President & Managing Attorney

We represent cyclists statewide and have particular depth in Los Angeles, Sherman Oaks, and the San Fernando Valley. Consultations are remote — by phone, text, or secure video — so the recovery is not interrupted by an office visit. We speak English, French, and Persian (Farsi) personally, and Spanish through a professional interpreter.

Frequently Asked Questions

I was hit by a car while riding my bike. Do I have a case?

Almost certainly yes if the driver violated a Vehicle Code provision — failed to yield, made an unsafe pass under CVC 21760, doored you under CVC 22517, turned across your path, ran a light, or drove distracted or impaired. California treats a cyclist as a vehicle driver under CVC 21200, so the same negligence framework that controls car-versus-car cases applies. The faster we evaluate the facts, the faster we can lock down the evidence.

I was not wearing a helmet. Does that kill my claim?

No. For adults, California does not require a bicycle helmet (CVC 21212 applies only to riders under 18, and CVC 21213(b) applies to Class 3 e-bike riders of any age). Defense lawyers will still argue helmet non-use as comparative fault in head-injury cases. California is a pure comparative-fault state under Li v. Yellow Cab Co., so the recovery may be reduced by a percentage if the jury finds helmet non-use contributed to the injury — but it is not a bar to recovery, and many head-injury cases settle without any reduction.

What about an e-bike? Does the analysis change?

The negligence rules against the driver are the same. The Vehicle Code adds rules for the rider: Class 1 and Class 2 e-bikes operate roughly where a regular bicycle can; Class 3 e-bikes are limited to riders 16 and older, must wear a helmet regardless of age, and are not permitted on most multi-use paths. Defense lawyers will sometimes argue the e-bike was operated outside its class or location restrictions — we anticipate that and document compliance up front.

The driver who hit me drove off. Do I still have a recovery?

Yes, in most cases. Hit-and-run is a separate criminal offense under CVC 20001 and 20002. On the civil side, your own auto insurance policy’s uninsured-motorist (UM) coverage applies to a cyclist struck by an unidentified or uninsured motor vehicle under Insurance Code Section 11580.2 — you do not need to have been in a car at the time of the crash. We have recovered against UM coverage for cyclist clients in pure hit-and-run cases.

I was riding outside the bike lane (or against traffic). Does that end the case?

No, but it raises the comparative-fault argument. CVC 21208 allows a cyclist to leave the bike lane to pass, prepare for a left turn, avoid a hazard, or approach a right turn — many bike-lane exits are statutorily permitted. CVC 21650.1 prohibits riding against the direction of traffic on the roadway or shoulder, and that is a harder fact for the cyclist. In either case, pure comparative fault still allows a percentage recovery proportional to the driver’s share of fault.

What is the three-foot passing rule exactly?

CVC 21760 — the Three Feet for Safety Act, originally effective September 16, 2014 and amended by AB 1909 effective January 1, 2023 — requires a driver overtaking a cyclist to pass at a safe distance and prohibits passing at a distance of less than three feet between any part of the vehicle and any part of the cyclist or bicycle. If the lane is too narrow for a safe three-foot pass, the driver must change lanes when one is available, or slow to a speed that is reasonable and prudent and only pass when doing so will not endanger the cyclist.

A car door opened into me. Whose fault is that?

CVC 22517 is the dooring statute. It places the burden on the driver or passenger to make sure it is reasonably safe to open the door on the traffic side of the vehicle and that doing so will not interfere with moving traffic. That includes cyclists in or near the bike lane. Dooring violations are textbook negligence per se against the person who opened the door, and we routinely add the parking violator’s insurer as the primary defendant.

How long do I have to file a bicycle accident claim in California?

Two years from the date of the crash for personal injury claims and for wrongful death claims, under CCP Section 335.1. If a public entity is a defendant (dangerous road conditions, defective bike-lane design, a transit vehicle), a written government claim must be filed within six months under California Government Code Section 911.2, and a lawsuit filed within tight statutory windows after that. Do not wait — both deadlines are unforgiving.

Related Practice Areas

Bicycle accident cases often overlap with related practice areas. If your situation has any of the elements below, the linked page is the most useful next read.

• Personal Injury Overview
• Car Accidents
• Motorcycle Accidents
• Pedestrian Accidents
• Truck Accidents
• Brain Injury / TBI
• Wrongful Death
• Review My Case (Free Consultation)

Reviewed by Houtan Yaghmai, Esq., President & Managing Attorney. Admitted to practice law in California (State Bar No. 298487). He represents personal injury and immigration clients statewide.

Last updated: May 30, 2026.