Bicycle Crashes: A Cyclist's Rights on Ohio Roads

Published June 1, 2015 · Injury Law Basics

June is when the bikes come out in the Miami Valley. Commuters ride into downtown Dayton, families ride the river trails, and club riders head out on the two-lane roads through Greene and Warren Counties. It is also when our office starts getting calls from cyclists who were hit by cars, and from families whose cyclist did not come home.

A cyclist hit by a car has almost no protection. The injuries are the injuries of a pedestrian struck at road speed: fractures, head injuries, spinal injuries. And the first thing the driver's insurance company usually says is that the cyclist should not have been in the road. This post is about why that is wrong, what the law actually requires of cyclists and drivers, and the insurance coverage that most injured cyclists do not know they have.

A bicycle is a vehicle

Ohio does not treat cyclists as guests on the road. Under R.C. 4511.52, the traffic laws in Chapter 4511 that apply to bicycles govern every bicycle operated on a highway or a bike path. A cyclist has the same right to use the road as a driver, and the same duties: stop at stop signs, obey signals, signal turns, ride with traffic. A cyclist who breaks those rules can be ticketed just as a driver would be, although no points go on the cyclist's driver's license.

The flip side is that drivers owe cyclists the same duty of care they owe every other vehicle on the road. A driver who turns left across a cyclist's path, pulls out from a side street without looking, opens a door into a bike lane, or passes too close is negligent in exactly the way that driver would be negligent toward a car.

"As far right as practicable" does not mean "in the gutter"

The rule insurers lean on hardest is R.C. 4511.55(A), which requires a cyclist on a roadway to ride "as near to the right side of the roadway as practicable." Adjusters read that as "as far right as possible" and argue that any cyclist who was more than a foot from the curb was breaking the law.

The statute says no such thing, and division (C) says the opposite. A cyclist is not required to ride at the edge of the road when it is unreasonable or unsafe to do so, and the statute lists the reasons: to avoid fixed or moving objects, parked or moving vehicles, and surface hazards, or when the lane is too narrow for a bicycle and a passing car to travel safely side by side within the lane. On most of the roads around Dayton, that last condition is met. A cyclist riding in the lane on a road with no shoulder, a gutter full of debris, or a lane too narrow to share is riding exactly where the law allows.

The driver's obligation when overtaking is in R.C. 4511.27(A)(1): pass to the left "at a safe distance" and do not return to the right until safely clear. The statute does not define the distance in feet. Experienced cyclists and the police officers who investigate these crashes know that a safe distance is far more than most drivers allow, and a mirror or a bumper that clips a cyclist is proof the distance was not safe.

Comparative fault, and why it rarely ends the case

Insurers also argue that the cyclist was partly at fault: no helmet, no lights, dark clothing, riding too far left, failing to signal. Some of those arguments are legally irrelevant, and some are factual disputes. None of them automatically defeats the claim.

Ohio's comparative-fault statute, R.C. 2315.33, bars recovery only when the injured person's share of fault is greater than the combined fault of everyone else. A cyclist found 20 percent at fault recovers 80 percent of the damages. A cyclist found 50 percent at fault still recovers half. I explained how the rule works in Partly at Fault? How Ohio's Comparative Negligence Rule Works. The practical point is that an insurer's claim that "the cyclist contributed" is an argument about percentages, not a reason to accept nothing.

Evidence that decides bicycle cases

Bicycle crashes are usually witnessed by exactly two people, and one of them is on the ground. The evidence that resolves the dispute is gathered early:

• The scene. Skid marks, debris, the resting position of the bike and the car, and the damage to each. Damage to the car's right front corner tells a different story than damage to its driver's door. The checklist in Photographs and Evidence applies fully.
• The road. Lane width, shoulder condition, and surface hazards at the exact spot, photographed before the city fills the pothole or sweeps the gravel. These facts are what make riding in the lane "practicable" under R.C. 4511.55(C).
• Witnesses and cameras. Other motorists, residents, and nearby businesses. Many commercial cameras overwrite in days.
• The driver's phone. Distraction is a factor in a large share of car-bicycle crashes. Phone records can be obtained, but only if a preservation demand goes out promptly.
• The bike. Do not repair it, and do not throw it away. The frame, the wheel, and the helmet are physical evidence of the impact.

The coverage most cyclists do not know they have

Here is the part of this post I most want cyclists to read.

The driver who hit you has liability insurance, if the driver has insurance at all, and that is the first source of recovery. But a cyclist is also, in most cases, covered by his or her own household auto policy, even though no car of the cyclist's was involved.

Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage under R.C. 3937.18 protects the people insured under a policy, not just the cars. Most auto policies define the insureds to include the named insured and relatives living in the household, whether they are in a car, on foot, or on a bicycle when an uninsured or underinsured motorist injures them. So a cyclist hit by a driver with no insurance, or by a driver with Ohio's $25,000 minimum limits, can make a claim on the cyclist's own policy, or a parent's policy, or a spouse's policy, for the amount the at-fault driver cannot pay. The same coverage responds to a hit-and-run driver who is never identified, subject to the proof requirements I discussed in Hit by a Hit-and-Run Driver?.

Policies vary, and some contain exclusions that must be read carefully. But a cyclist who assumes "I wasn't in my car, so my car insurance doesn't apply" is often wrong, and the mistake can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in a serious case. Our UM/UIM practice begins every bicycle case by reading every policy in the household.

Medical payments coverage on those same policies may also pay the cyclist's bills regardless of fault, and health insurance should be used from the first day of treatment.

What this means for you

If you were hit while riding, you have the rights of any driver and the protection of more insurance than you probably realize. Do not give a recorded statement to the driver's insurer, do not accept the argument that you were in the wrong place, and do not let the bike be repaired until it has been photographed and preserved. Get medical care, keep treating, and call a lawyer while the scene and the witnesses are still available. Our bicycle injury practice handles these cases from the first call through trial.