When you’re riding a bike, you have to be aware of your surroundings. Normally, you cross in a crosswalk and wait for traffic to pass. Sometimes, speeding traffic may come up on you faster than expected, or oncoming traffic may not yield to you. In those cases, you may be able to make a claim if you’re hit. That might be what happens in this case involving a bicyclist who was hit by a motorcyclist.
The video released online shows a bicyclist being hit by a motorcyclist while headed west on Burnside in the left lane. According to the video, one of the motorcyclists was avoided by the cyclist, and another avoided the bicyclist by staying in the left lane out of sight. However, a motorcyclist in the right lane struck the bicyclist.
The motorcyclist claims that he thought the cyclist would stay on her current path, which is why he tried to go around her on the right. Instead, the motorcyclist struck the bicyclist as she attempted to enter an intersection.
While this case leans toward being the fault of the motorcyclist, it’s been said that both the cyclist and motorcyclist should share responsibility for the accident. It’s the bicyclist’s fault in some ways for failing to wait long enough before entering into traffic, but it’s also the motorcyclists who failed to give themselves a clear escape path when entering the intersection.
In the video, it appears that the cyclist attempted to turn around when the motorcyclist in the left lane was closer than she thought; that would have been okay, but the second motorcyclist went to the right instead of the left, cutting off her route back to the sidewalk.
Source: KATU 2 On Your Side, “Caught on camera: Motorcycle crashes into bicyclist in Portland,” Bob Heye, May 03, 2016
