If you or someone you love has sustained injuries due to a bike share accident, then you should consider contacting a personal injury attorney to discuss your case. The experienced Providence bike share accident attorneys at the Law Offices of Ronald J. Resmini, Accident & Injury Lawyers, Ltd. will work hard to get you the justice and fair compensation you are owed if you’ve been hurt as a bike share rider or if a reckless rider injured you.
JUMP bike share has distributed electric bicycles all over Providence, and they pose a real danger to their riders and to other road and sidewalk occupants. Our city is developing infrastructure and programs in an effort to become more bike-friendly. While there may be good intentions behind these plans, changes may not occur quickly or effectively enough to deal with the massive increase in bicycle traffic. Bike share programs have increased traumatic brain injuries around North America. Our visitors and neighbors face many dangers associated with these bicycles.
Call the Law Offices of Ronald J. Resmini, Accident & Injury Lawyers, Ltd. at (401) 751-8855, and allow us to evaluate your case for free. If we believe it is a good idea to proceed, then we can develop a plan together. We believe that companies that cause injuries should be held accountable. We will go after them.
Why Do I Need a Bike Share Personal Injury Attorney?
Personal injury attorneys are specialists within the legal community. We are charged with understanding the deceptive practices many insurance companies partake in. Lawyers, like the ones at the Law Offices of Ronald J. Resmini, Accident & Injury Lawyers, Ltd., know how to defeat their tactics.
Insurance companies want you to be outmatched. Don’t be. A bike share personal injury attorney won’t allow them to take advantage of you.
Choosing the Law Offices of Ronald J. Resmini, Accident & Injury Lawyers, Ltd.
For more than 40 years, Ronald Resmini has fought for his clients. At our firm, we believe that all of our clients deserve a strong and competent representation. We have a terrific record at getting compensation. Many of our clients receive tens of thousands, some even millions, of dollars in damages. In order to have such a result, it is imperative that a well-trained personal injury attorney evaluate your case to determine whether legal action is warranted.
We Handle Complex Cases
Serious injuries due to someone else’s actions or negligence can cause a lifetime of hurt. You or your loved one needs a skilled litigator who knows how to win and can take the lead against powerful companies.
Our law firm handles cases that involve some of the most heartbreaking and devastating injuries one can imagine. It is hard for us to hear some of the stories. It is so much harder for the victims. Bike sharing injury victims often face extreme physical and emotional challenges. Let us take a little bit of your struggle away.
The Dangers Posed by Bike Share
Cyclists must not only rely on the safe and courteous driving of motorists and fellow cyclists, but they also must avoid obstacles all over our Providence roads. If an accident does happen, unfortunately, there is a significant chance that it will result in a serious injury.
A frightening statistic from the American Association of Neurological Surgeons indicates that cyclists make up the largest group of recreation/sports-related head injuries seen in U.S. emergency rooms each year. A significant amount of those head injury victims are children. In some places, such as New York City, three-quarters of all fatal bicycle accidents were related to a head injury. Nearly all of those involved cyclists who were not wearing a helmet. According to research from helmets.org, ninety-two percent of the fatalities involved a motor vehicle collision.
Bike share companies like JUMP do not provide helmets to cyclists. The state of Rhode Island only requires helmets for cyclists under the age of 16. This means that adults and older teenagers can rent a bicycle and ride around Providence without a helmet to protect their head.
If you want to rent a bike to have a good time, to run an errand, or for any other reason, unless you have a place to store your own helmet prior to the rental and after you are done, then you have no way to shield your head from terrible injuries. A traumatic brain injury could change your life or your loved one’s life forever.
Relying on those who share our streets is a scary notion. Not only do we have to count on their skills and rely on them to pay attention, we also must trust that our fellow travelers are sober. It’s an unfortunate reality that many motorists drive while under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
What happens if the brakes lock up, or if one of the tires goes flat in the middle of an intersection, or if there is a gear shift issue? Unfortunately, any time you are using someone else’s bicycle, you have to hope that they are carefully maintaining it. If an accident occurs due to faulty or poorly maintained equipment, then the company responsible for its maintenance could be liable for that failure.
Objects clutter our roadways, and if a cyclist hits something, they could fly off their bike or spill right into traffic. Winter has a brutal impact on roads, causing potholes. Construction, reckless drivers, and pedestrians who cross in the middle of the street are all potential hazards to bike share riders. If a bike or car must swerve, an accident is bound to occur, threatening life and limb.
Bike Sharing Sounds Good, but Is It Safe?
Providence is filled with countless motor vehicles traveling to and from destinations every day. Having alternative transportation options like bike share seems like a practical idea.
However, there are significant dangers, and you or a loved one can get badly hurt. In addition to potential dangers from head trauma, bodily injury is a real concern for cyclists. Shattered bones and damage to organs are also frequent when bicycle accidents occur. Cyclists using bike share are not protected.
Rhode Island has many laws designed for safe cycling (which can be found on the state website), but neither cyclists nor others who occupy our roads and sidewalks always follow them. We even have a dooring law, which prohibits people from opening their car door in the street when traffic is coming. How many times have people opened their car door after the light turns green, causing other vehicles to quickly swerve over?
Bicycles, by law, are supposed to be treated as just another vehicle on the road. That rarely happens. Many motorists don’t properly yield to bicycles. They speed up to pass cyclists. They are often oblivious to cyclists changing lanes or attempting to pass. Drivers often think about their own convenience rather than the laws that govern our roads.
Cyclists are not the only ones at risk when it comes to bike share companies like JUMP. Pedestrians who walk on our sidewalks can become the victims of terrible collisions with riders. Many cyclists are not courteous of pedestrians that they share sidewalks with. They are supposed to dock their bicycles in designated areas, but that does not always happen.
For instance, if a bike share rider wants to go into a coffee shop or market for a few minutes, they might choose to park their bike right in the doorway, maybe even next to a bench on the sidewalk. This can cause a tripping hazard, and it can block access to door entrances for disabled people.
Other vehicles on the road are at risk too. If a collision occurs between a bike-share cyclist and a car, truck, or motorcycle, the cyclist often receives greater injuries. But the person in the larger vehicle is certainly not immune to danger. They might have stopped suddenly, causing the airbag to deploy, swerved into oncoming traffic, or collided with another vehicle.
Will I Get Compensated for My Injuries?
Compensation depends on a wide variety of factors, many of them complex. That is why it is critical to obtain a skilled personal injury lawyer, like one from the Law Offices of Ronald J. Resmini, Accident & Injury Lawyers, Ltd., to evaluate your case.
After reviewing the circumstances surrounding your or your loved one’s injury, we can effectively assess whether we think you might be entitled to compensation. The amount of money you could receive depends upon the severity of your injuries and the lasting impact it could have on your life.
If you choose to go it alone without an experienced attorney to steer you through the legal process, then it could be more difficult for you to get properly compensated. Additionally, the legal process is stressful, which would burden you in an already trying time. That is unnecessary. Let us take that on instead.
Contact Us
If you or someone you love has gotten injured because of an accident involving a bike share bicycle, then you might be entitled to compensation. Call the Law Offices of Ronald J. Resmini, Accident & Injury Lawyers, Ltd. at (401) 751-8855, and we will evaluate your case for free.
