Boynton Beach · Palm Beach County

Boynton Beach Bicycle Accident Lawyer

A driver passed too close or opened a door into the lane, and now you have broken bones, a written-off bike and time off you cannot afford. We can take it from here. Call 833-370-8692 for a free consultation. You pay us nothing unless we win. Our Boynton Beach personal injury lawyers have taken these cases across Palm Beach County since 1993.

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$3,850,000 Recovered for a person struck by a vehicle.

Same rights Cyclists have the rights and duties of drivers.

Palm Beach County Our Boynton Beach office takes these claims anywhere in the county.

In Palm Beach County

Bicycle Accident claims in Boynton Beach

The driver will say you came out of nowhere, and their insurer will start from the idea that a bicycle did not belong on that road. Meanwhile you are paying for the emergency room, missing work, and finding out your own auto policy may be what covers you. Sorting out which policy pays is our job, and it starts the day you call.

The riding here is largely along Federal Highway, Congress Avenue and the streets between them, and the collisions are the two classic patterns: a driver turning right across a rider they have just overtaken, and a driver turning left across an oncoming rider they judged to be slower than they were. Neither happens at speed and both cause serious injury, because a rider goes over the hood either way. Fault is usually clear on the physics and disputed anyway, so the damage pattern and the final rest positions matter more than the drivers' accounts.

Short answer

Most bicycle collisions in Boynton Beach are right-hook and left-cross turns at driveways rather than crashes at intersections, and fault is usually clear on the physics and disputed anyway. What settles it is the damage pattern and the final rest positions. Cases arising here are generally heard at the South County Courthouse in Delray Beach.

What to do after a bicycle accident in Boynton Beach

Keep the bicycle and the helmet exactly as they are. Do not have the bike repaired, do not replace the wheel, and do not throw the helmet away because it looks fine. The frame, the fork, the wheel and the components record the direction and the force of the impact, and a cracked helmet is physical proof of a head strike that an emergency department may not have documented. Photograph everything before it is touched.
Get witness names, and ask which riders had cameras. The driver gives the officer the only account while the rider is being treated. A single independent witness changes that. On a group ride somebody almost always has a camera running, and those files are overwritten or deleted within days, so the question is worth asking at the roadside rather than the following week.
Photograph where you were entitled to be. The lane markings, where the bike lane starts and where it ends, the parked cars, the debris, the drain grate, the surface. Road position is the whole argument in most of these cases, and a photograph taken that day settles what a description written a month later cannot. Photograph the intersection from the driver’s approach as well as your own.
See a doctor even if you got up and rode home. The signature bicycle injuries arrive when somebody goes over the handlebars, and a fractured scaphoid, a cracked collarbone or a shoulder separation is regularly walked off on the day. A brain injury does not need loss of consciousness and a normal scan does not rule one out. A gap between the crash and the first visit is the most common argument made about how badly somebody was hurt.
Do not take a quick payment for the bicycle. An early check to cover the bike is one of the cheapest things an insurer can do, and it sometimes arrives attached to a release. A release cannot be reopened. Have the property claim handled alongside the injury claim rather than in front of it, and do not sign anything on the strength of a number that only covers a frame.

Where these happen in Boynton Beach

South Palm Beach County rides in two distinct ways: people getting to work early on the main roads, and children and recreational riders on the streets between them. The evidence in each is different.

Riding to work before daylight

A large share of the riding here is transport, done at hours when the lighting on the road is the first question anybody should ask.
- Collisions before dawn and after dark on Federal Highway and the roads feeding it
- Streetlight outage records, held by the utility and the municipality
- Lights and reflectors on the bicycle, which are required after dark and are worth photographing
- Riders whose bicycle is how they earn a living, which changes what the loss actually is
Right turns at ramp signals and driveways

The I-95 interchanges and the plaza entrances between them, where a driver overtakes a rider and turns across them within seconds.
- A driver who passed the rider and then turned, which the damage pattern establishes
- Sight lines at entrances, which are measurable and are sometimes the actual defect
- Lot and storefront cameras, which cover these entrances better than public cameras and cycle in weeks
- A property owner alongside the driver where landscaping or signage blocked the view
The surface along the shoulder

The strip riders are directed into is also where the debris and the defects collect in this part of the county.
- Drainage grates and utility covers set below or above the surface
- Sand and construction debris swept out of the traffic lanes
- Edge drop-offs where the pavement meets the shoulder
- Maintenance and complaint records showing what had been reported before somebody came off
Children riding

A meaningful share of what we see involves riders under sixteen, and their claims are assessed differently from an adult’s.
- The helmet requirement, which applies under sixteen and is a damages question rather than a liability one
- A child’s share of fault, which Florida assesses differently from an adult’s
- School routes, crossing guards and the times they were actually on post
- Any settlement for a minor, which has its own approval requirements and cannot simply be signed

What causes them

Passing too close, where Florida requires a minimum clearance that is widely ignored
Drivers pulling out of driveways, plazas and side streets having looked only for other vehicles
Rear-end collisions on shoulders and in bike lanes, particularly at dawn and after dark
Bike lanes that end without warning and put a rider into a live traffic lane
Drainage grates, pavement seams and expansion joints that catch a wheel

The injuries we see, and what each one turns on

Road rash and scarring

Sliding on asphalt takes skin off in layers and the serious version needs debridement and grafting. Two things get undervalued in an early offer: the infection risk that extends a hospital stay well past what the injury suggests, and permanent scarring, which is its own recoverable loss and has to be photographed as it heals rather than described afterward.

Spine, pelvis and internal injury

Where a rider is struck by a vehicle at speed rather than falling from one, the injuries are the same as any other vehicle collision: fractures, cord injury, organ damage and internal bleeding that is found on imaging hours later rather than at the roadside.

Catastrophic injury and death

A rider hit from behind on an open road, or on a fast recreational route, is in a collision with no protection of any kind. Where somebody is killed, Florida decides by statute who in the family may recover and for what, and the claim is brought by the personal representative of the estate rather than by relatives individually.

What Florida law requires you to prove

A bicycle is a vehicle, and a rider is a driver

Under Fla. Stat. § 316.2065 a person riding a bicycle on a roadway has the rights and the duties of the driver of a vehicle. That is the sentence the whole practice runs on. It means a rider is entitled to be on the road rather than tolerated there, and it also means the rules apply in both directions, which is the part an insurer will press on.

Where a rider has to be, and when they may leave it

The same statute directs a rider traveling slower than other traffic to keep to the right, and to use a bike lane where one is provided. It also recognizes that a rider may move out of it: to overtake, to turn, to avoid a parked vehicle, debris, a surface hazard or a lane too narrow to share safely. An insurer arguing that leaving a bike lane makes a rider responsible is stating a preference rather than the law. What the hazard was, and whether moving was reasonable, is the actual question.

What a passing driver owes, helmets, and the deadlines

Florida requires a driver overtaking a bicycle to pass at a safe distance, with a statutory minimum set out in Fla. Stat. § 316.083. Helmets are required for riders under 16 and are not required for adults, and riding without one does not bar an adult from recovering. Fault is shared under Fla. Stat. § 768.81, where a rider more than 50 percent responsible recovers nothing, and most claims arising on or after March 24, 2023 carry a two-year deadline under Fla. Stat. § 95.11.

The full statutory detail, and the parts that differ by claim type, sit on our statewide bicycle accident page rather than being restated in every market.

How we prove it in Palm Beach County

What decides a case here is usually recorded by a private property rather than by a public authority, which changes who has to be asked and how quickly.

What we go after, and when

The bicycle itself, unrepaired, and the helmet, kept even where it looks undamaged
Where the damage sits on the vehicle and at what height, which is what establishes a right-hook sequence
Where the bicycle and the rider came to rest relative to the entrance or the lane
Plaza, storefront and community entrance cameras, which overwrite within weeks
Streetlight outage records where the collision happened in low light
Photographs of the shoulder, the grate, the debris and the sight lines, taken the same day
Road authority maintenance and complaint records for the stretch involved
Witness names taken on the day, particularly at plaza entrances where nobody stays around

A right hook and a left cross leave different marks, and the difference is usually visible on the vehicle rather than in anybody’s account. That is why the damage geometry is the first thing photographed and the last thing an insurer wants examined.

A setting a bicycle accident claim in Boynton Beach typically arises from

Who would handle your case

Being hurt in Boynton Beach is hard enough without working out the legal side on your own. The trial lawyers below have handled bicycle accident claims across Florida since 1993, and one of them will take yours from the first call to the last check. They will tell you what your case is worth and why, and they will be straight with you about the parts that are hard.

How insurance companies handle these claims

Every one of these files opens from the same position: that the rider was somewhere they should not have been. It is worth knowing that in advance, because almost everything an adjuster asks in the first weeks is aimed at it.

You ran the stop sign, you had no lights, you were on the wrong side: Because a rider carries the duties of a driver, rider conduct is genuinely in play, and where something like that happened it reduces a claim rather than automatically ending it. Two things are worth knowing. It only ends the claim above 50 percent responsibility, and it is asserted far more often than it is established. Camera footage and the physical evidence answer it either way.
A quick check for the bicycle: The property claim is settled fast and cheaply, and it sometimes arrives with a release attached. Good bicycles are expensive and the components frequently cost more than the frame, so the number offered is usually low on its own terms. Have the two claims handled together rather than signing anything to get the bike replaced.
Nobody is paying the first medical bills: More coverage usually exists than a rider expects. If you own a car, your own PIP pays the first bills even though you were on a bicycle, because Florida’s no-fault coverage follows the person rather than only the vehicle. If you do not, it may still be available through a resident relative’s policy. Beyond that, your health insurance, any MedPay and your uninsured motorist coverage all sit behind the driver’s bodily injury policy. It is worth checking every policy in the household before assuming there is nothing.

What a claim can include

Scarring and disfigurement

A separate head of loss after road rash or grafting, and one that is routinely left out. Photograph the healing as it happens, because a record of what it looked like at three weeks does not exist unless somebody made it.

The bicycle, the components and the equipment

Frame, wheels, drivetrain, power meter, helmet, shoes, computer and clothing. Riders regularly leave several thousand dollars out of a claim because the adjuster asked what the bike cost and nobody asked about the rest.

What a family may recover after a death

Funeral and medical expenses, lost support and services, and the losses the statute assigns to particular survivors. Who may claim is decided by statute rather than by agreement within a family.

What we have recovered

Verified matters this firm has handled on bicycle accident claims. Figures are gross recoveries, before attorney fees, costs and medical liens come out of them.

Not publishedCyclist killed by a county transit bus

A twenty-year-old was riding his bike through a Plantation crosswalk on an illuminated walk signal when a Broward County Transit bus turned right on red into him and killed him.

Broward County wrongful death settlement

$800,000Cyclist struck at a traffic circle

Our client, an experienced cyclist, was riding legally in the bike lane approaching the traffic circle at East Camino Real and Royal Palm Way in Boca Raton when an SUV owned by the Royal Palm Improvement Association struck him.

Settlement after suit was filed

Every verdict and settlement we publish, with the press coverage for the ones that were reported. No result predicts another case: every claim turns on its own facts, its own evidence and the insurance actually available.

Another setting a bicycle accident claim in Boynton Beach arises from

Why Wolf & Pravato in Boynton Beach

A case arising in Boynton Beach is normally heard at the South County Courthouse in Delray Beach rather than downtown West Palm Beach, and the firm’s office on East Gateway Boulevard is a short drive from it. For a rider recovering from a serious injury, a local office is a practical difference rather than a marketing one.

Fewer than one percent of Florida lawyers are Board Certified in Civil Trial law: 861 of them, against a Bar membership over 109,000. Richard Pravato is one, and has been since 2004. Carriers price a claim partly on who is holding it, which is the practical reason that matters to somebody deciding who to call.

A consultation costs nothing, and neither does the case unless we recover money for you. Where we do not believe a claim is worth bringing, we will tell you plainly rather than take it on and let it drift.

Call 833-370-8692 Free consultation. No fee unless we win.

Questions

Boynton Beach bicycle accident questions

Is a helmet required in Florida, and does it affect my claim?

Required under sixteen. For an adult, riding without one is not a violation and does not bar a claim. An insurer may argue it contributed to a head injury, which is an argument about dividing the damages rather than about who caused the collision. The driver’s conduct is still the reason the crash happened.

The driver passed me and then turned right into me.

That is a right hook, and it is one of the more provable collisions in this practice, because the sequence leaves a signature. Where the damage sits on the vehicle, where the bicycle came to rest and the angle of the impact all establish that the vehicle was ahead of you only because it had just overtaken. A driver who passes a rider and then turns across them has created the hazard themselves.

My son was hurt riding to school. How is that different?

In two ways that matter. Florida assesses a child’s share of fault differently from an adult’s, so an argument that would reduce an adult’s claim frequently does not apply. And any settlement involving a minor has its own approval requirements and cannot simply be signed by a parent, which is a protection rather than an obstacle. It also means an early offer to a family is worth examining carefully.

I was not wearing a helmet. Does that end my claim?

No. Florida requires helmets for riders under 16; adults are not required to wear one, and choosing not to does not bar a claim. An insurer may argue it affected head injuries specifically, which is a narrower point than they usually suggest and says nothing about who caused the collision.

Does my car insurance cover me on a bike?

Very often yes, and it surprises people. Florida PIP follows the person rather than only the vehicle, so your own policy can pay your first medical bills after a bicycle crash. Uninsured motorist coverage may also apply, particularly in a hit and run.

The questions that come up on every kind of claim, deadlines, fees, recorded statements and fault, are answered on our Florida injury claim FAQ.

Tell us what happened

A lawyer will listen, tell you what Florida law does with those facts, and be straight with you about whether it is worth bringing. We are at 1375 E Gateway Blvd, Boynton Beach, FL 33426.

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