There are a number of significant benefits to riding a bike. These include everything from improving your health to providing environmentally favorable transport. With that noted, there are also dangers associated with riding a bicycle. Every year, thousands of bicyclists are injured in accidents involving motor vehicles, according to the National Safety Council. Some of these collisions result in serious and even fatal injuries. There are bike accident injuries that are more commonplace in New York and across the United States.
Most Severe Bicycle Accident Injuries
There are six different categories of severe injuries that arise in bike accidents. These oftentimes occur in bike accidents that involve collisions with automobiles and include:
• Head and neck injuries
• Traumatic brain injury
• Deep facial lacerations and facial bone damage
• Debilitating leg injuries that include severed arteries, shattered bones and compound fractures
• Injuries to the chest or abdomen
• Spinal cord injuries
In many accidents involving bicycles and motor vehicles, an injured bike rider will suffer profound injuries in more than one of these categories. For example, an injured bicyclist may suffer traumatic brain injury, deep facial lacerations and other injuries as well.
Bike Accidents and Lifelong Injuries
There are bike accidents that result in injuries that resolve over time. In other words, bike accidents can cause injuries that may be severe, but a person does recover over a period of time.
While there are injuries from which a bike rider can recover following an accident, there are also injuries that are truly chronic and will impair or debilitate a person for the rest of their life. These include:
• Certain types of traumatic brain injury
• Spinal cord injury
• Motor impairment resulting from traumatic brain injury or spinal cord damage
• Cognitive impairment resulting from traumatic brain injury or spinal cord damage
• Psychological impairment resulting from traumatic brain injury or spinal cord damage
• Nerve damage
• Paralysis
• Chronic pain
• Traumatic arthritis
• Loss of range of motion
• Loss of smooth motor function
• Loss of digits or limbs
The net effect of these types of injuries is that a person will require some level of lifelong medical treatment. In addition, a person severely injured in this manner in a bike accident may suffer mental health issues beyond those that can be associated with a traumatic brain injury. These mental health issues include post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression and substance use disorder.
A person who has been injured in a bike accident can best protect their vital legal rights by retaining the services of an experienced, tenacious bike accident lawyer. The first step in engaging legal counsel is scheduling an initial consultation and case evaluation. Contact Ziff Law Firm to schedule your consultation with a bike accident lawyer.
