Sarasota Bicycle Accident Lawyer
Sarasota County rides year round, and the roads were not built for it
Sarasota has the weather, the flat terrain and the trail network that make cycling ordinary here rather than seasonal. What it does not have, on most of its arterials, is separation between a bike lane and forty-five mile an hour traffic. A painted line is not a barrier, and the crashes I handle reflect that.
I am David Harris. I have represented injured people in Sarasota County since 2003.
Where these crashes actually happen
Very few of them are a car striking a cyclist from behind on open road, which is what most people picture. The recurring patterns are closer in:
- A right turn across a bike lane, where the driver checked for cars and not for a bicycle already alongside
- A car pulling out of a driveway or plaza exit into a bike lane the driver treated as part of the shoulder
- A left turn across oncoming traffic that misjudged a cyclist's speed
- A door opened into the lane by someone who did not look
Each has a different evidentiary shape, and each tends to produce a different argument from the insurer about what the rider should have done.
Florida gives a cyclist a driver's rights
Under Florida law a person riding a bicycle on a roadway has the rights and duties of the driver of a vehicle, with a few exceptions specific to cycling. That is the legal starting point and it is worth stating plainly, because the insurer's opening position is often that the rider did not belong on the road at all.
Two rules matter in these files. Section 316.083 requires a driver overtaking a bicycle to pass at a safe distance of not less than three feet, and since 2021 that applies whether the rider is in the travel lane or in a bicycle lane. And section 316.2065 lets a rider leave the bike lane or the right-hand edge when reasonably necessary to avoid a condition or potential conflict, naming surface hazards, parked and moving vehicles, turn lanes and substandard-width lanes among them. That is frequently the very manoeuvre an insurer calls unpredictable.
Negligence
Negligence is the failure to use reasonable care, such as texting while driving or ignoring a spill on a store floor. Personal injury claims are built on proving that someone’s negligence directly caused your injuries.
Fault
Fault is a legal term describing who is responsible for causing an accident. Proving that another driver, property owner, or business was at fault is essential to recovering money for your injuries and losses.
Your car insurance covers you on a bicycle
Personal Injury Protection
Personal injury protection (PIP) is auto insurance that pays for medical bills and sometimes lost wages after a crash, no matter who caused it. A car accident lawyer in Sarasota can help you coordinate PIP benefits with your liability claim.
Section 627.736 sets the fourteen-day deadline for initial treatment. Cyclists miss it more than drivers do, because a rider who walks away with road rash and a sore shoulder does not feel like a hospital case. Fractures in the hand and wrist and shoulder separations are common in exactly that presentation. This is not medical advice, it is a calendar.
Bodily Injury
Bodily injury (BI) refers to physical harm to your body, such as broken bones, sprains, or head trauma. BI coverage on an insurance policy can help pay for medical bills and other losses when you are hurt by a negligent driver.
Evidence disappears faster here
A bicycle is usually the only damaged property with a story to tell, and it is often thrown away or repaired within days. Keep it as it is. Keep the clothing and the helmet. If you were running a camera or a GPS computer, preserve the file before the device overwrites it.
The crash report is confidential for sixty days under section 316.066, available inside that window to the people involved and their representatives.
No fee unless you recover
Call and you get me. If there is no claim worth bringing I will tell you so. If there is, I keep it myself.
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Results depend on the facts of each case. You may not obtain the same or similar results.