A teenage bicyclist was seriously injured when an oncoming car hit him at an intersection. The collision happened August 28 at an intersection in Lorain. The bike rider, a 14-year-old male, was thrown from his bike when the vehicle struck him, and he landed in the median. The cyclist was not wearing a helmet and was airlifted to the MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland where he was listed as being in critical condition. The accident remains under investigation by the Traffic Bureau’s Accident Reconstruction Team.
When bicycles and cars share the road, there are, unfortunately, occasional accidents. While only 11 percent of bike accidents involve vehicles, 45 percent of them take place at intersections. This is due to a number of reasons, including that cars often make turns at intersections and fail to take notice of smaller travelers before they turn. Additionally, drivers are not always good at estimating the speed at which a bike is traveling and can underestimate how much distance to put in between their cars and the bikes. Even when motorists are vigilant of bicyclists, they can sometimes be difficult to see due to their size and the weather conditions.
The serious nature of bike crashes
When cars and bikes do collide, bicyclists are at a severe disadvantage and often these accidents can be life-threatening to bike riders. It is for this reason that both bike and car drivers need to be especially careful. While a turn at an intersection that hits another car might result in minor damage, when it involves a bike, the bicyclists can be seriously injured or killed.
Drivers must remember that bicycles have the same rights as other vehicles, and they must treat them like another car on the road. If you or a family member have been injured or killed in a bicycle-car accident, meet with a compassionate southwest Ohio personal injury attorney at Clements, Taylor, Butkovich & Cohen LPA, Co.