El Monte Bicycle Accident Lawyer | San Gabriel Valley You were hurt.

Hospital bills. Missed work.

Why should you pay for another's carelessness?

Now the insurance company is pushing you to settle.

Tell them: "No, not until I talk to Brad."

Lawsuits are scary. A 5-minute phone call with Brad is not.

El Monte Bicycle Accident Lawyer | San Gabriel Valley

A car hit you on your bike and you are really hurt. A bicycle gives you no protection - no frame, no airbag, no steel - so an otherwise minor auto accident results in severe injuries. To make matters worse, public opinion leans toward the cyclist having done something wrong.

But a bicycle is a vehicle. You have the same right to the road as any car, truck, bus, or motorcycle. Drivers are required to respect the bike lane, pass you at a safe distance, and give you the right of way just as though you were driving a car. Some will blame you anyway.

Most of these crashes come down to four words: "I didn't see him." If the driver who hit you says that, make a note - they just admitted fault. Not seeing a cyclist in plain daylight is not an excuse. It is the failure itself.

Even if you weren't wearing a helmet, the driver doesn't get a pass. A helmet does not cause a collision or prevent one. What you had on your head has nothing to do with whether a driver ran you off the road. And even if you drifted out of the lane or rolled a stop, California uses comparative fault - if you are 30% at fault, you still recover 70% of the damages. A police report blaming you is not final either. An officer's opinion gets obliterated by eyewitnesses, dashcams, or traffic cams.

As with any accident, the evidence disappears fast. Skid marks fade in days. A nearby store's camera, a passing car's dashcam, the GPS on your bike computer - all of it has a short shelf life and has to be pulled quickly.

Here's the honest part: not every bike accident is a case. A low-speed bump with no real injury is a conversation, not a lawsuit, and Brad will tell you that plainly. But if a driver put you on the pavement and hurt you, their insurance is already plotting to prove you were at fault.

We are an El Monte bicycle accident lawyer. Pulling the footage before it's gone, shutting down the blame, and making the driver's insurance pay for your injuries and your bike is how Brad Hayes Law earns its fee, paid out of the settlement if we win. But we can't win if you don't call.