Connecticut Bicycle Accident Lawyer

Connecticut law gives cyclists meaningful rights, responsibilities and protections on the road. The following provisions tend to matter most in serious cases.

Cyclists have the rights and duties of drivers

Under Connecticut General Statutes § 14-286a, in general, a person riding a bicycle on a roadway has the same rights and is subject to the same duties as the driver of a motor vehicle. That means in most circumstances cyclists are entitled to be treated as legitimate road users, not as nuisances to be passed quickly or pushed aside.

The three-foot passing law

Under Connecticut General Statutes § 14-232, the driver of a motor vehicle passing a cyclist must allow at least three feet of clearance between the vehicle and the cyclist. The law was enacted in 2008 and has since been expanded to cover electric bicycles and electric foot scooters as well as conventional bicycles. Failure to provide three feet of clearance is a violation of Connecticut law, and if a driver’s failure to do so causes a cyclist injury, they can be held liable.

Driver duty of due care

Connecticut General Statutes § 14-300d requires drivers to exercise due care to avoid cyclists, just as they must with pedestrians on foot.

Lane positioning

Connecticut General Statutes § 14-286b requires cyclists to ride as near the right side of the roadway as is safe. The law recognizes a number of exceptions, including when overtaking another vehicle, when preparing to turn left, when avoiding hazards, and when the lane is too narrow to share safely.

Helmet law

Connecticut General Statutes § 14-286d requires cyclists under 16 to wear a helmet. Adult cyclists are not required to wear a helmet, though doing so is strongly recommended.

Cyclists in crosswalks

When a cyclist uses a sidewalk or crosses a street within a crosswalk, the cyclist has the same rights and duties as a pedestrian under Connecticut General Statutes § 14-286a(b). The strengthened pedestrian-yield requirements that took effect in October 2021 also apply.

Comparative negligence

Connecticut applies a modified comparative negligence rule. A cyclist who is partially at fault for a crash may still recover, but only if the cyclist's share of fault is 50% or less. This is known as contributory negligence in Connecticut. If a cyclist is found to be contributorily negligent, and the percentage of fault assigned to the cyclist is 50% or less, then the recovery is reduced by the cyclist's percentage of fault. If the cyclist is found to be more than 50 percent at fault, the cyclist is not entitled to any recovery under our law.

The most serious bicycle cases the firm handles tend to involve a recurring set of driver failures.

• Failure to yield. Drivers turning across a cyclist's path, or pulling out of driveways and side streets without looking for cyclists, are a leading cause of serious bicycle crashes. The driver's classic explanation, "I didn't see them," is often the heart of the defendant’s case.
• Distracted driving. A driver looking at a phone, a navigation screen, or anything other than the road ahead can miss a cyclist entirely until impact.
• Unsafe passing. Drivers who pass cyclists without leaving the required three feet of clearance can clip, sideswipe, or force a cyclist off the road. A sideswipe at speed can throw a cyclist into traffic, into a fixed object, or into the pavement with catastrophic force.
• Right hooks and left crosses. A "right hook" occurs when a driver passes a cyclist and immediately turns right across the cyclist's path. A "left cross" occurs when an oncoming driver turns left across the path of a cyclist traveling straight. Both are among the most common patterns in serious bicycle crashes.
• Dooring. A driver or passenger who opens a car door into the path of a passing cyclist can cause severe injury. Dooring is a recognized cause of bicycle injury in any area with parallel parking, and Connecticut law obligates vehicle occupants to check before opening doors into traffic.
• Impaired driving. Alcohol, drugs, and certain medications impair the judgment and reaction time of drivers, and a cyclist is among the road users most at risk when an impaired driver is on the road.
• Dangerous road and infrastructure conditions. Potholes, sewer grates with bars parallel to the direction of travel, broken pavement, debris in bike lanes, missing or unmaintained signage, and poorly designed intersections all contribute to bicycle crashes. When a public entity is responsible for a dangerous condition, it may share liability.
• Defective bicycle and component failures. Brakes, tires, frames, and other components can fail. When a defect contributes to a crash or to the severity of injuries, the manufacturer may bear responsibility.

Cyclists have very little protection from a vehicle impact or other types of collisions, and the cases handled by SGT reflect a broad range of different injuries. The most common include:

• Traumatic brain injuries, from concussion to severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) with permanent cognitive impairment, even when the cyclist was wearing a helmet
• Spinal cord injuries, including incomplete and complete injuries that can result in partial or total paralysis
• Multiple fractures, particularly to the legs, pelvis, arms, and collarbone
• Internal organ damage from blunt force trauma
• Road rash, burn injuries and lacerations, which can require skin grafting and leave permanent scarring
• Facial fractures and dental injuries
• Amputation of limbs in severe collisions
• Psychological injuries, including post-traumatic stress, anxiety, and depression
• Fatal injuries, where the family is left to pursue a wrongful death claim

Many of these injuries do not present fully in the hours after a crash. Adrenaline can mask pain. Brain injuries can present subtly at first. Prompt and thorough medical care, and a careful record of every symptom over time, makes a substantial difference.

The first priority after any crash is safety and medical care. Beyond that, a few steps can substantially strengthen an eventual claim.

Call 911 and report the crash. A police report is one of the most important documents in any bicycle case. Insist on one even if the driver tries to talk you out of it.

Get medical attention. See a doctor even if injuries appear minor. Many serious bicycle injuries do not present obvious symptoms immediately, and a gap between the accident and the first medical visit is something defense lawyers will exploit.

Document the scene. Photograph the bicycle, the vehicle, the road, traffic controls, debris, skid marks, and any visible injuries. Note weather, lighting, and time of day.

Identify witnesses. Get the names and contact information of anyone who saw the crash. Bicycle cases often turn on witness testimony, and witnesses become harder to locate as time passes.

Preserve video or surveillance footage. If you have video footage of the incident, be sure to preserve it immediately. If others at the scene indicate they have footage, be sure to request that they preserve it as well. Some video surveillance systems automatically delete or override video footage if not explicitly preserved within a certain period of time.

Exchange information with the driver. Get the driver's name, address, license number, insurance carrier, policy number, and vehicle information.

Be careful what you say. Do not apologize, do not admit fault, and do not minimize your injuries. Insurance adjusters routinely call within days of an incident, sometimes recording the conversation. Statements made before the full extent of an injury is understood can be used against a claim later. Speak with a lawyer before giving any recorded statement.

Preserve the bicycle and gear. Do not have the bicycle repaired, sold, or scrapped until your lawyer has had a chance to inspect it. Damaged helmets, eyewear, lights, and clothing can all be physical evidence and should not be discarded.

Contact a lawyer early. Evidence disappears. Witnesses move. Surveillance footage from nearby businesses gets overwritten quickly. The earlier a lawyer is involved, the more effectively the case can be investigated.

Bicycle cases are entirely consistent with the kind of work the firm has done for more than four decades: careful investigation, sophisticated case preparation, and willingness to take the case all the way to trial. The firm only accepts cases where the fault is clear and the client has suffered serious injuries. When SGT accepts a case, it commits the full financial and legal resources of the firm to that case, and it brings to bear a set of tools most plaintiffs' firms do not have.

SGT uses experienced experts and physicians who are deeply involved in the investigation of every case. In bicycle cases involving traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, and complex orthopedic trauma, that medical perspective is particularly valuable.

The firm uses sophisticated trial preparation techniques, including focus groups, to test how real Connecticut jurors react to the facts of a case before trial. Focus group work is particularly valuable in bicycle cases, where juror predispositions toward cyclists can shape outcomes and need to be understood early.

The firm retains accident reconstruction experts and other technical specialists to establish exactly how a bicycle crash occurred, including the driver's line of sight, vehicle speed, lighting conditions, and the timing and sequence of the impact.

The firm maintains a national network of expert witnesses, including leading physicians, surgeons, life-care planners, and economists, who are available to evaluate cases and testify when needed.

Liability in a bicycle case can extend beyond the driver who struck the cyclist. Identifying every responsible party is essential to a full recovery, particularly when the driver has limited insurance coverage.

• The at-fault driver is the most direct defendant.
• The employer of an at-fault driver, when the driver was working at the time, may be liable under principles of respondeat superior.
• The owner of the vehicle may share responsibility under Connecticut's family car doctrine and other theories.
• Rideshare and delivery companies can bear responsibility when their drivers cause cyclist injuries during covered activity.
• A commercial establishment that overserved alcohol to an impaired driver may be liable under Connecticut's dram shop laws.
• A state or municipal entity responsible for road design, signage, lighting, and bike-lane maintenance may share liability when a dangerous condition contributed to the crash. Claims against government entities require notice within much shorter windows than other claims, so prompt investigation is essential. There are other barriers that may apply in pursuing claims against the state or municipal entity.
• A bicycle or component manufacturer can be liable when a defect contributed to the crash or to the severity of injuries.

Fault in a bicycle case is determined by the same negligence principles that govern other personal injury claims. A plaintiff must establish that the driver owed a duty of reasonable care, that the driver breached that duty, that the breach caused the crash, and that the cyclist suffered measurable harm as a result. Violation of a traffic statute, including the three-foot passing requirement of § 14-232 and the due-care requirement of § 14-300d, can establish negligence as a matter of law under the doctrine of negligence per se.

Evidence of fault typically includes police reports, witness statements, surveillance and dashcam footage, photographs of the scene, vehicle damage analysis, the driver's electronic device records, traffic signal timing data, and the testimony of accident reconstruction experts.

Bicycle cases also frequently involve comparative-fault arguments from the defense. A driver's lawyer may try to shift fault by arguing the cyclist was not in a bike lane, was wearing dark clothing, failed to keep an appropriate lookout for motor vehicle traffic or was riding too fast. Anticipating and rebutting those arguments through careful investigation is part of what the firm does in every case.

Connecticut law allows cyclists injured in crashes to recover both economic and non-economic damages. Economic damages cover quantifiable financial losses: past and future medical expenses, the cost of long-term or lifetime care, lost wages, lost earning capacity, and property damage to the bicycle and gear. Non-economic damages compensate for pain and suffering, emotional distress, disfigurement, loss of enjoyment of life, and loss of consortium for spouses and, in some circumstances, minor children. In wrongful-death cases, damages may include the value of the decedent's lost earnings and the financial and emotional losses to surviving spouses. In addition, in wrongful-death cases, damages include the loss of enjoyment of life’s activities as a result of the death.

Because cyclist injuries are often severe, the value of a case frequently exceeds the limits of the at-fault driver's auto insurance policy. In those cases, the cyclist's own uninsured and underinsured motorist (UM/UIM) coverage may pay the difference, up to the policy limits. Connecticut law requires every auto insurance policy to include UM/UIM coverage, and cyclists can typically pursue these claims even though they were not in a vehicle at the time of the crash.

Connecticut's statute of limitations for personal injury claims, including bicycle accident claims, is two years from the date of the injury, under Connecticut General Statutes § 52-584. Different rules apply to certain categories of claim, including wrongful death (which has its own two-year limitations period, with additional outer limits), claims against government entities (which require notice within a much shorter window), and claims involving minors.

Because these deadlines are strict and because evidence is most useful when preserved early, cyclists and their families should contact a Connecticut bicycle accident lawyer as soon as possible.