You’ve never been in a bike-car accident before. You ride your bike to work every day, though, so you know the risk is there. What should you do if you’re hit? It pays to know in advance.
While every accident is different, here are a handful of steps that can help:
- Get to a safe place off of the road. Attempt to stay calm and avoid any secondary accidents.
- Take pictures. If you have your smartphone, take some shots of your bike, the area around the crash, the vehicle and the car’s license plate.
- Talk to the diver and get his or her contact information. This could include a driver’s license and a cellphone number.
- Talk to witnesses. They could be very important if the driver gives a different account of events. Ask them for phone numbers and email addresses and ask if you can contact them if needed.
- Call the authorities. Obviously, if you’re hurt, you need emergency care, but you should still call even if you feel fine. There are cases where people have been seriously injured and not realized it with the shock of the accident until hours or days later.
- Don’t fix or discard the bike. Keep it, even if you’ll never ride it again. It’s evidence of how badly you were hit.
- Write down everything you can remember about the crash. It’s best to do this while your memories are fresh. If you have nothing to write with, take a video on your phone and talk through the crash.
If you do all of this, you’ll be well prepared to look into your legal rights to financial compensation after the accident.
Source: Consumer Reports, “What to Do If You Get in a Bike Accident,” Karin Weisburgh, accessed Dec. 05, 2017