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The Illinois Bicycle Lawyers at Keating Law Offices have been retained by a bicyclist who sustained severe injuries in a motor vehicle versus bicycle collision on Chicago's Archer Avenue on the city's southwest side near Midway Airport. The collision occurred earlier this year at one of the exits of the BP Gas Station located at Archer Avenue and Oak Park Avenue. Immediately prior to the collision, the victim was riding his bicycle westbound on Archer Avenue towards the BP. As the bicyclist approached one of the BP's two Archer Avenue exits, a motorist quickly shot out of the gas station and collided with the bicyclist. Prior to impact the bicyclist instinctively put out his arm to brace against the vehicle at impact. Following the impact, the victim's bicycle was pinned under the car while the bicyclist narrowly escaped the same fate before hitting the ground.
A nearby police officer responded to the scene, and the victim was transported to the emergency room in an ambulance. This case serves as a warning to all bicyclists involved in a collision: things may be worse than they seem. At the ER the bicyclist was not diagnosed with any fractured bones and emergency room personnel wrote the bicyclist a prescription for pain medication and scheduled a follow up appointment. However, at the follow-up appointment doctors discovered that the victim sustained a severely torn meniscus in his knee, a displaced tendon in his hand from the direct impact with the car, and injuries to his neck and shoulder.
In causing this collision, the motorist violated a number of provisions of the Illinois Rules of the Road. Namely, the motorist was in clear violation of 625 ILCS 5/11-906 which states "The driver of a vehicle about to enter or cross a highway from an alley, building, or private road or driveway shall yield the right-of-way to all vehicles approaching on the highway to be entered." Bicycles qualify as "vehicles" under 625 ILCS 5/11-1502, placing the victim squarely within the protection of the statute which required the driver to yield to the bicyclist's right-of-way before pulling out of the parking lot and into the roadway. The Illinois Bicycle Lawyers at Keating Law Office routinely rely upon the previously mentioned statutes to reach successful outcomes when advocating on behalf on clients who have similarly been injured by a motorist's failure to comply with the Illinois Rules of the Road.
If you have any questions regarding this post or an issue involving Illinois personal injury law, please do not hesitate to contact Illinois Bicycle Lawyer Mike Keating at 312-239-6787 (Business Hours) or 312-208-7702 (24/7) or atMKeating@KeatingLegal.com. All emails and phone calls are returned promptly. Keating Law Offices offers free, no obligation consultations to injured bicyclists. There are never any attorneys' fees or expenses unless the firm is able to make a recovery on your behalf.
