Every day cyclists are injured in accidents and drivers who struck them are going away without even a summons

Around 20 people are injured in bicycle accidents in New York City every day. The majority of these accidents are cyclists struck by cars. When a cyclist is struck by a motor vehicle, the injuries are often serious because cyclists do not have any protection expect sometimes for their helmet which is not mandatory in New York City.

Most common injuries sustained by cyclists in a crash are head injuries

Head injuries account for around half of bicycle accident injuries. They can lead to long term disabilities especially for those cyclists who suffered traumatic injury such as skull fracture, cranial hemorrhage, concussion or contusion. Other frequent injuries sustained when a cyclist is hit by a car are fractures and dislocation  including facial, dental and ribs fractures. Internal organs are often injured as well and ruptured spleen, pancreatic trauma, bowel and renal contusions as well as hernia are frequent. Cyclists also frequently get impaled by their handle bar resulting in life-threatening injuries.

Most of of the time in New York, when a cyclist is injured after being struck by a car, the police will write down a report and let the driver go away without even a summons. Yesterday a StreetBlog NYC Contributor happened to be the witness of such accident. He was riding his bike down Second Ave in Manhattan when just in front of him, a driver whose view was obstructed by an illegally parked car drove through a bike lane without yielding to cyclists and struck one of them. The cyclist was seriously injured and put in an ambulance before the NYPD arrived. When the police arrived, they spoke with the driver and with the witnesses, made their report and left without giving a summons for failure to yield to the driver or a ticket to the car that was illegally parked because the car had a placard reading surgeon. A business owner on the block told the Streetblog contributor that it was no emergency and that the car was parked there every day.

Even if the police let the driver go, it doesn’t mean that the driver is not responsible for the injuries sustained by the cyclist. A cyclist who sustained serious injury after being struck by a car should always call an experienced NYC bicycle accident attorney for a free consultation.

Picture of the location of the accident: a car was illegally parked in the white area while the driver crossed the bike lane to get into the garage.