Oregon Injury Lawyer Blog
Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) frequently reminds its audience that “drinking and driving don’t mix.” Driving while impaired due to alcohol or drugs places everyone on the road at risk, especially those like bicyclists and pedestrians (who are the most vulnerable to serious or fatal injuries should a crash occur). If you were seriously hurt (or a loved one was killed) aboard a bicycle because of an impaired driver, you potentially may have a variety of legal options available. An experienced Oregon bicycle accident lawyer can help you identify the avenues available to you and outline a strategy best suited to your circumstances.
An alleged example of just how much harm mixing drinking and driving can do came from Crook County earlier this month. OregonLive reported that, at around 11 p.m. on April 25, an SUV struck a bicycle on Oregon 380 near Prineville. The 36-year-old woman behind the wheel of the Ford Expedition was unharmed. The 57-year-old man aboard his bicycle was pronounced dead at the scene.
Law enforcement thinks that impairment played a role in the fatal collision. According to the OregonLive report, police arrested the driver of the SUV “for driving under the influence of intoxicants and believe impairment played a role in the crash, though the investigation remains ongoing.”
A Serious Problem that is Getting Steadily Worse
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, injury accidents involving bicyclists (both fatal and non-fatal) are on the rise. In 2014, there were just over 700 fatalities in bicycle accidents. By 2021, that number was 976, and in 2023, 1,155 bicyclists lost their lives in motor vehicle accidents.
Driver Errors… Including the Consumption of Alcohol
Many times, a serious or fatal bicycle accident involved a bicyclist who did nothing wrong. Indeed, the most common scenario involves a bicyclist who was stopped and got rear-ended by a driver.
A lot of these rear-end crashes (and other serious bicycle accidents) occur because the driver failed to see the bicyclist. The reasons for that are varied but often involve the driver having engaged in negligent driving in one way or another. A driver may negligently fail to spot a bicyclist because they were speeding, were distracted by their phone or other electronic device, or simply were not paying close enough attention to the road.
One type of driver error that happens all too often is driving while impaired. Last year, NHTSA reported that, in 2023, alcohol consumption (either by the driver or the bicyclist) was a factor in 34% of all fatal bicycle accidents. (The year before, that number was 37%.)
Legal Liability Beyond Just the Driver
If your bicycle accident involved a drunk vehicle driver, the people who served alcohol to that driver may be liable to you for the harm you suffered. In the case of a business entity (like a bar or restaurant), this is called dram shop liability. (When the server was a private individual, it is called social host liability.) Your legal counsel can help you identify if your drunk driving accident presents the possibility of dram shop or social host liability.
In other scenarios, bicycle accidents happen due to unsafe road conditions. Many bicycle crashes take place at intersections, and some of those intersections are constructed or maintained in such a way that it renders them unsafe. Frequently, the problem comes down to poor sight lines that limit a driver’s ability to see a bicyclist. This may be the result of poor design or poor maintenance (such as allowing vegetation to become overgrown, thereby restricting visibility). When that is the case, you may have a case against the entity that designed and/or maintained that intersection.
The Importance of the Right Legal Advocate
As noted above, your bicycle accident case may be multifaceted, involving both insurance claims and civil litigation. The litigation side may involve suing multiple parties, including those beyond just the at-fault party. To get justice, you need legal counsel who knows how to do a thorough investigation, promptly collect the necessary evidence, and then build a compelling case based on that proof. For highly personalized, knowledge-based, and experience-driven, call upon the Oregon bicycle accident lawyers at Kaplan Law LLC. The sooner you call, the sooner we can begin building your case. Call (503) 226-3844 today or contact us online to schedule your free consultation.
