Drivers turn across bike lanes, open doors without looking, and pass too close. We investigate what happened, handle the driver's insurer, and document injuries a helmet could not prevent.
We represent injured cyclists across Western Massachusetts from our offices in Springfield and Westfield. A new injury reaches a real person 24 hours a day at (413) 426-8657; the first conversation is free.
The three crashes we see most
The right hook. A driver overtakes you and immediately turns across your path into a driveway or side street. They judged your speed as a pedestrian's, not a cyclist's.
The door. Someone parked opens a door into the travel lane without looking. Massachusetts law puts that squarely on the person opening the door, and a cyclist has no time to react - the door appears inside the distance it takes to stop.
The pass. A driver squeezes by with inches to spare, or clips a handlebar. Massachusetts now requires drivers to leave a safe distance of at least four feet when passing someone on a bike, which turns "he was just close" into a concrete violation.
What these share is that the driver's account is honest and wrong. They did not see you until the moment of impact, so their memory begins at the impact. The evidence has to come from somewhere else.
Why the evidence has to be collected now
Bicycle cases are won or lost on things that stop existing within about two weeks: footage from a doorbell camera or the convenience store on the corner, the bike itself before it is thrown away, the damage pattern on the car before it is repaired, and the names of people who stopped.
We start with the bike. Where a frame bent and which side the scrapes are on often contradicts the driver's version of the geometry, and a bike that has been discarded cannot be examined. Keep the bike, the helmet, and the clothes you were wearing, even if they are ruined. Photograph everything before anyone cleans it up.
The insurer will bring up the helmet
Expect it, whether or not you were wearing one, and whether or not your injuries have anything to do with your head. It is raised because most people assume it must matter.
Massachusetts requires a helmet for riders sixteen and under. The statute that requires it also provides that a violation is not evidence of negligence, which means the argument does not do the legal work the adjuster implies it does. And a helmet has no bearing at all on the broken collarbone, the torn knee, the degloving road rash, or the wrist that never fully rotates again - which is most of what a serious bike crash actually produces.
Two sources of money, not one
Personal injury protection follows the vehicle. If a motor vehicle insured in Massachusetts struck you, its PIP benefits reach you as a cyclist, no-fault, for medical expenses and a share of lost wages. You do not have to prove anything to access it, and it starts paying while the rest of the case is still being investigated.
The driver's liability coverage is separate, and that is where the injury itself is compensated. If the driver was uninsured, underinsured, or never stopped, the uninsured motorist coverage on your own auto policy can respond even though you were on a bicycle - your policy covers you, not just your car. Bring us the policy and we will read it.
What to do now
Get examined the same day, even if you feel able to ride home; adrenaline hides a great deal, and a gap between the crash and the first medical record is the first thing an adjuster will point at. Report the crash to the police and get the report number. Keep the bike and gear. Photograph your injuries as they change, because the worst days are the ones that are never documented. And talk to us before you give a recorded statement to the driver's insurer.
If what happened to you is small enough to handle on your own, we will say so. The first conversation is free either way.