Bicycle Accidents

It happens all too often on the roads of Northeastern North Carolina. A bicyclist following proper safety rules is run off the road by a car or truck in a careless, reckless or, in some cases, intentional act. The resulting catastrophic injuries can be devastating to the cyclist and his or her family, resulting in broken bones, head and brain injury, paralysis or even death.

At Glover Law Firm, we take bicycle accidents personally. Our personal injury attorneys, Danny Glover Jr., was actually a competitive cyclist for years who raced for many years on teams based in the Tidewater and Raleigh areas. Danny believes strongly in the financial and health benefits that can be derived from riding bicycles for transportation or recreation, and we believe it is his duty to stand up for the rights of cyclists, who have equal rights to the road as trucks and automobiles. Those who cause bicycle crashes need to be held accountable, and their victims need to be fully and fairly compensated.

Dedicated to Client Service
For more than 22 years, we have helped bicycle accident victims throughout the state, especially in Northeastern North Carolina and the Outer Banks, including those in Elizabeth City, Edenton, Hertford, Camden, Currituck, Manteo, Nags Head, Kill Devil Hills, Duck, Corolla and surrounding areas in Pasquotank, Camden, Dare, Currituck, Perquimans, Chowan and Gates counties. Danny’s results include some of the largest verdicts and settlements in Northeastern North Carolina history.

If you or a loved one has been hurt by the negligence or recklessness of another person or company, call our bicycle accident lawyers today at (252) 299-5300 or use our online form to learn how we can help you. We provide free consultations and charge no fee unless you recover damages.

With our moderate climate, flat terrain and beautiful coastal views, the Albemarle Region and Outer Banks are popular spots for cyclists. Unfortunately, not all car and truck drivers have learned how to share the road with them. There are at least 18 reported bike accidents that result in serious injury each year in Pasquotank, Camden, Dare, Currituck, Perquimans, Chowan and Gates counties, according to N.C. DOT crash data. Countless other accidents certainly occur, but they are not reported because the bicyclist does not realize their legal rights.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, some of the leading causes of bicycle accidents are when motor vehicles fail to:

• Share the road by leaving at least three feet of clearance when passing the bicycle
• Check for a cyclist when opening a car door or leaving a parking spot
• Stop at stop signs or red lights at intersections or yield the right of way
• Check mirrors and blind spots for bicycles when making a left or right turn.

North Carolina is a pure contributory negligence state. This means that if a person is deemed to be as little as 1 percent at fault for their accident or injury, they can be barred from recovering damages. At Glover Law Firm, we know how to counter insurance companies who will try to escape paying for claims by arguing that the cyclist contributed to the crash by simply being on the road to begin with. Our leading personal injury lawyer, Danny Glover Jr., has been recognized for his expertise in this area of the law, serving for several years as the chair of the N.C. Advocates for Justice Auto Torts Section and as a member of its Board of Governors.

Our attorney and staff will work with investigators and highly qualified experts to determine the true story of your bicycle accident, and we will fight to secure the compensation you need, including medical expenses, lost wages and pain and suffering. If the driver who hit your bicycle committed an especially reckless act, such as intentionally running you off the road, our attorneys will seek punitive damages as well in any verdict or settlement on your behalf.

We’ll also keep you regularly updated about the progress of your case. Our attorney and staff are always available to answer your questions.

Attorney Danny Glover Jr. is a seasoned negotiator, an accomplished trial lawyer and a passionate advocate for the rights and interests of his clients. They have more than 24 years of combined legal experience and have helped thousands of personal injury victims and their families to recover favorable verdicts and settlements. For their work, they have earned recognition from North Carolina Super Lawyers, The Million Dollar Advocates Forum and N.C. Advocates for Justice, among others.

Danny Glover, Jr. assists bicycle accident victims throughout the state, especially in Northeastern North Carolina and the Outer Banks, including those in Elizabeth City, Edenton, Hertford, Camden, Currituck, Manteo, Nags Head, Kill Devil Hills, Duck, Corolla and surrounding areas in Pasquotank, Camden, Dare, Currituck, Perquimans, Chowan and Gates counties.

For a free consultation about your bicycle wreck case, call us today at (252) 299-5300 or use our convenient online form. We charge no fee unless we are successful on your behalf.

Hey. I’m Danny Glover with Glover Law Firm in Elizabeth City. I represent injured people all over Northeastern North Carolina including the Outer Banks. Been doing that for 22 years. I want to talk to you specifically today about bicycle accidents and bicycle wrecks. It may not look it but several years ago for about 10 years, I was a competitive cyclist racing road bikes all over Virginia and North Carolina and South Carolina. In my hay day, I was riding 200 to 250 miles a week. I know about the dangers of cycling on our North Carolina roads. In places like Raleigh and Charlotte, it’s not as big a deal as it is in Northeastern North Carolina because in those big cities, they have greenways. They have bike lanes. Cyclists are provided an area of safety.

Unfortunately, in Edenton, Gates County, Elizabeth City, the Outer Banks, we have very few bike lanes. In fact, the Corolla area and then down the beach road through Kill Devil Hills and Nags Head are about the only areas I can think of that have designated bike lanes for any length of distance. That leaves the cyclists in our area to basically fend for themselves on the public roads. Now, it shouldn’t be that way. The law of North Carolina is that a bicycle is treated the same as an automobile, the same rules of the road apply. The same rights of the road apply. It is not the rule in North Carolina that cyclists have to get on to the shoulder when a car is approaching them from the rear. It is the rule in North Carolina that that cyclist up ahead of the car has the right of way.

The car behind can pass when it is safe and legal to do so. Unfortunately, a lot of our drivers in Northeastern North Carolina think the automobile or the truck has the right of way. They blow by our cyclists way too closely in a dangerous fashion. That often creates situations where cyclists are unnecessarily and needlessly hurt because of the impatience or distraction or reckless driving of the vehicles in their immediate vicinity. One of the challenges of handling bike wrecks in Northeastern North Carolina is this popular mentality that cyclists shouldn’t be on the roads because they aren’t bike lanes. That becomes a challenge to overcome with the jury. What I try to do first and foremost is to work with the insurance company.

Oftentimes, the adjusters aren’t from this area. Now that’s not necessarily true with the foreign bureau adjusters who typically are more local. With the other carriers, the adjusters live and work in the big cities where they’re used to seeing the bike lanes, where they’re used to seeing the greenways, where they know that these automobile bicycle interactions should not be occurring. It can be a little easier to deal with them. Oftentimes, with my bike wrecks, the injuries are much more severe than injuries suffered by people riding in a car who have the protection of the cage of the car or the truck.

We’re frequently dealing with road rash and for those of you who have not had road rash, that’s one of the more painful things you can ever go through as you go to a hospital and they have to debris asphalt and rocks and sticks from underneath your skin leaving you with raw patches that ooze and pus for weeks if not longer. It can be very, very painful. It’s tough to sleep especially if you flip over the handle bars and you have that on your back or on your hips. Your hands, if you’re not wearing gloves can get raw and you can’t use them at work. Sometimes, your face will hit the pavement resulting in permanent scarring to your face. We also deal with a lot of hip and collar bone injuries. Especially in elderly riders, the hip injury can be devastating.

There are specific orthopedic injuries that are much more common for bike wreck victims than for car wreck victims. Over the 22 years that I’ve helped bicycle riders, I’ve grown accustomed and fairly knowledgeable about all those injuries and are able to work with the orthopedic surgeons and the neurosurgeons and the plastic surgeons to obtain and provide the medical evidence necessary to make sure that my bicycle accident clients get the best possible outcome from their settlement or their trial. If you’ve been in a bike wreck, feel free to call me. I’m happy to talk to you about that. I’m happy to help you with that. My name is Danny Glover with glovEr law Firm in Elizabeth City. (252) 299-5300 or you can email me at danny@dannygloverlawfirm.com.