Robin Herman | 00:00
There’s a bike crash. Take us through what happens in the first hour after a bike crash?
Glenn Herman | 00:12
What happens in the first hour after a bike crash?
Robin Herman | 00:14
What should happen?
Glenn Herman | 00:16
This is what you should do after a bike crash. If you’re in the roadway, move to a safe location. Call 911, if you can. If you can’t please ask somebody to. You don’t want to be in the roadway if you’re hit. Next thing you should do really depends on the severity of your injury. Some injuries are so devastating that all you can do is wait for help and let the first responders care for you. If you’re able to, or if someone who you’re with can assist you, These are the steps that should be taken: Document as much as you can. If you have your phone, take pictures of the vehicles involved, the license plate, the roadway conditions, and your injuries. Gather information, the license and insurance information of the car that you’re involved in the collision with, three, if there are people around, ask them to type their contact information into your phone. We don’t walk around pen and paper anymore, and I can’t tell you the multitude cases where good samaritans help out our clients and they’re on the ground and they say, this person was great. What’s their name? I don’t know. And you’re not thinking about it at the time, and look, you’re caring for your injury, but that’s really important to say, hey, can you do me a favor? Type your contact information into my phone. I just want to call you and thank you later on. And most people are willing to do that.
Next, if your crash was caused by a defective road condition or street hardware or depressed manhole, bad pothole. Gotta take pictures over there, ask somebody to. The conditions change on a daily basis and if you can’t take it at the time, or go back the next day, ask a friend, hey, listen, I was in a bad crash. This is where it was. It was over a plate or a grate or some other street hardware. Just go take it immediately, because without that, it’s really impossible to prove.
Next, you want to keep your helmet, that you should be wearing. Your bike, any damage to it and your clothes that you were wearing at the time and definitely take photos of them. When a car is involved, you might get calls from insurance company investigators. Someone might show up knocking at your door wanting to talk to you, saying, look, we just want to help. You don’t have to give any statements and you shouldn’t until you’ve spoken to an attorney. Definitely recommend that.
Next, you’ll need to contact the insurance company of the vehicle that struck you, and your own insurance company if you own a car because you want to make a claim and you need to let them know as soon as possible. Of course, we recommend calling an attorney to advise you of all your rights and what insurance benefits you’re entitled to, and injury attorneys don’t charge for consultations. So by all means, you should call, and that’s the basic steps after a crash.
Robin Herman | 03:25
So there’s a lot to do. Let’s say after a crash, the rider says he feels fine and decides to not go to the hospital. Could that turn into a problem?
Glenn Herman | 03:38
You feel fine at the scene, and then the next day you can’t get out of bed, common. Sometimes symptoms manifest days or weeks after a crash. Your joints or muscles might have been torn by the crash, but you don’t feel it right away. When there’s no immediate treatment, the insurance company and their lawyers will say you weren’t hurt in the crash, even though you know you absolutely were, and it’s just really unfortunate. So our advice is always, if you’ve been banged up, You hit your head. Let’s seek medical attention, and that takes the argument out of the mix, but it protects you. It’s so important. There’s a lot of times you’ll get a concussion, your head hits the ground, asume you’re wearing your helmet, and you should really get checked out as soon as possible. And we’re not by any means suggesting that you get treatment in cases where it’s just a tap, you know, you feel fine. you don’t fall, you don’t hit the ground. No, you don’t need to get looked at. But anytime you go down and your head hits the ground, whether or not you are wearing a helmet, you definitely get checked out.
Robin Herman | 04:54
What evidence should a rider grab before they leave the scene of an accident?
Glenn Herman | 04:59
Before a rider leaves the scene of an accident, assuming that the rider is physically able to. I think we had mentioned earlier, you want to document as much as you can. If you have your phone, take pictures of the vehicles involved, license plates, the roadway conditions and your injuries. Gather the license and insurance information of the car, and if there are people around, ask them to, again, type their contact information into your phone. If there’s no police at the scene, you definitely need to go to the precinct, have a report made.