Is it just me, or have their been a lot more newspaper stories this year on bicyclists being hurt? Maybe I am just hypersensitive to the issue since I like to ride my bike to work on nice summer days. However, just recently we've had:
-- the 30-year-old bicyclist killed in the intersection near Lake Calhoun,
-- the 13-year-old bicyclist in Lakeville severely injured when he was hit by a car,
-- the father of four killed last Thursday in Minneapolis in an apparent homicide when he went out bicycling at night;
-- the Wright County teen bicyclist recently injured by a hit-and-run driver; and
-- a Nick Coleman column in the Strib today about a bicyclist injured by a motorist.
Of course, one of those incidents was an apparent homicide rather than an incident caused by negligence, but that goes to show another potential danger of biking. In crashes alone, eight bicyclists were killed in Minnesota last year, the Strib reports in one of the articles.
The negligence cases sometimes lead to lawsuits, of course. Minnesota Lawyer has reported this year on a $47,000 settlement procured by a bicyclist whose jaw was fractured and a bicyclist who procured a $45,000 settlement for a shoulder injury.
It should not be surprising that there are even some lawyers who fancy themselves specialists on these kind of cases. Minnesota Lawyer had an article last December about a California lawyer whose practice centers on bicycle cases. ("California lawyer chooses the (bike) path less taken," subscriber password required.)
I am not aware of any local lawyers who concentrate in bicycle cases -- although, of course, personal injury lawyers will always be willing to take a good one. The wheels of justice turn for bicyclists as well as motorists.
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Haven't seen any numbers on it myself, but seems like local biking is way up in the past few years. I probably see two dozen commuting to work every morning on my route.
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