Who is Liable in a Bicycle VS Car Accident?

Seattle Bike Accident Lawyer Explains How Liability is Determined

Video Transcript:

Molly Hendrickson: 

How is fault determined when a car is involved in an accident with a bicyclist? We asked attorney Rebeccah Graham in this Ask the Lawyer's Quick Question.

Rebeccah Graham: 

Fault is determined in a bicycle-auto collision kind of the same way fault would be determined in any sort of collision. Who had the right of way? Did the cyclist have the right of way? Did the automobile have the right of way? Was there negligence on behalf of the driver or was there negligence not paying attention on behalf of the cyclist? I mean we do see cyclists who take extraordinary risks, and so they can be in fact at fault. So it'd be determined just like any other situation would be. Really important to document. How did the police come to the scene? The police will look to see if there were any witnesses and those witnesses can be critical in determining whether the vehicle is at fault.

You can also have an accident reconstructionist. So if you hire our firm, and there's a question about who is at fault, we would go ahead and hire a good accident reconstructionist to determine who was at fault, and that person, that expert, can pull the data on the vehicle and see what the vehicle was in fact doing at the time, and that can be really instrumental in determining whether the vehicle was at fault.

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