The Law Offices of James M. Freeman, P.C.

Brain injuries can be the most debilitating and difficult injuries from which to recover, not just for the injured person, but also for those close to the injured person. Every brain injury is unique. Brain injuries can affect nearly every aspect of one’s life from being able to take care of personal needs to work and family relationships. Depending upon the severity of the injury, physical, cognitive and emotional/behavioral consequences can range from mild and manageable with the proper therapies to complete dependence in all areas of care. A catastrophic brain injury affects nearly every area of a person’s life including the physical, the emotional, the social and the financial.

After many brain injuries life is not the same for the injured or their family members. Sometimes, families may be the ones who experience shock while their loved one is unconscious or incapacitated. It can be extremely confusing and frightening when one is confronted with the need to make important medical decisions on behalf of an incapacitated person at a time when it is nearly impossible to think clearly. The family may beel overwhelmed when faced with the need to make important decisions for which they are totally unprepared. There may be a total disruption in the family’s routine and a resetting of priorities because time and attention are needed by the family member with the brain injury. In severe cases of brain injuries the injured individual may not even be conscious of his injuries, while the family is forced to face a lifetime of the aftermath.

The financial impact of a catastrophic brain injury can be profound. The enormous cost of health care is immediately apparent and overwhelming, but the person with the brain injury may not be able to work for months or years, if at all. If that person was supporting a family the effects on can be devastating. Loss of the value the person brought to their family, workplace and community may be incalculable.

Almost one-third of my bicycle cases involve the "left cross." For some reason these are more common than the "right hook." I suspect it has to do with visibility issues and motorists' mistaken belief swith respect to bicyclists 'rights on the road.

A "left cross" occurs when a cyclist and motorist are approaching from opposite directions. The motorist makes a left turn at an uncontrolled intersection or on a solid green, striking the cyclist or causing the cyclist to crash in attempting to avoid the motorist. In so doing the motorist fails to yield the right of way to the cyclist in violation of Illinois and Chicago law. These are devastating accidents that often result in serious or catastrophic injuries to the cyclist.

Some strategies to avoid the left cross include:

• Get a headlight. If you're riding at night, you should absolutely use a front headlight. It's required by law in Illinois and Chicago. Get a good headlight too- stay away from the Knog Frog as your only headlight- one diffuse LED isn't the most visible light.
• Wear something bright. Bikes are small and easy to see through even during the day. Yellow or orange reflective vests really make a big difference. Reflective leg bands are also easy and inexpensive. The idea is that you want the motorist to look foolish when they try to argue that they couldn't see you.
• Make eye contact and slow down. If you can't make eye contact with the driver (especially at night), slow down so much that you're able to completely stop if you have to. It beats getting hit.

Left crosses are tremendously dangerous. In Chicago you must ride defensively. Assume that people are going to cut you off and ride accordingly. Never ride assuming that people will obey your right-of-way, because sometimes they simply won't. As always, if you are injured because of a left cross, contact a lawyer before speaking to the motorist's insurance. If you do hire a lawyer be sure it is one experienced in dealing with the issues and defenses specific to bicycle cases.

In my experience about 30% of crashes in Chicago are doorings. Doorings are discouraging because they are completely avoidable. It never ceases to amaze me how people will just fling open the doors of their cars without any consideration for approaching traffic. Doorings violate both Illinois and Chicago law. Typically driver side dooring cases are hard to defend unless the dooring happened at night and the cyclist didn't have a headlight. In such an instance the motorist will say that they checked their mirror before opening the door and they didn't see the cyclist because of the lack of proper lighting equipment. The lack of headlight is a very effective defense in dooring cases.

Dooring cases also vary in how they occur. Sometimes cyclists are caused to crash while attempting to avoid a door opened in their path. Remember, it is not necessary for there to be actual physical contact for you to have a claim against a driver who opened a door in your path. If a carelessly opened door causes you to wreck you should treat the accident like any other, exchange insurance and contact information and call the police.

Cyclists can employ certain strategies to reduce their exposure to dooring crashes:

• Get a headlight. If you're riding at night, you should absolutely use a front headlight. It's required by law in Illinois and Chicago. Get a good headlight too- stay away from the Knog Frog as your only headlight. If someone hits you, you want them to look foolish when they try to argue that they couldn't see you.
• Avoid riding in the door zone. Give yourself enough room to avoid a door if it is opened in your path.
• Keep your eyes open. Be conscious of traffic around you and give yourself room to react in the even that a door is opened in your path.
• Look in rear view mirrors of parked cars as you approach. If you see someone be wary- they may open the door.
• Use your hands. I will put out my hand to catch doors if I am forced to pass a parked car or taxi within the door zone. I have caught unanticipated doors in the past in this fashion, and have successfully avoided being doored.

Injuries and claims from doorings vary widely. Doorings can be deadly under some circumstances, while other. cases the bicyclist comes through unscathed. If you are injured by a dooring it is imperative that you retain an attorney experienced in handling such matters. In many catastrophic doorings there may be more than one party responsible for the accident, and there may be special statute of limitation issues that need to be anticipated. Only an attorney experienced in handling such matters will know how to properly proceed against all parties at fault. As always, it is best to speak to an attorney before speaking to the motorist's insurance company.

One of the frustrating problems I face with respect to getting a recovery for my clients is insufficient insurance coverage limits. The mandatory minimum coverage limits in Illinois require every automobile to carry liability insurance with a minimum of twenty thousand dollars per occurrence and forty thousand dollars total. That means that for any given occurrence the most such a policy would pay out is $20,000. Twenty thousand dollars isn't a lot of coverage. One could exhaust that much coverage with one night in a hospital.

Often one of the biggest factors limiting recovery for cyclists hit by automobiles is the coverage limits of the responsible party. In catastrophic cases in which clients suffer debilitating and permanent injuries the limiting factor of recovery is often the amount of insurance coverage.

I have repeatedly made the argument that uninsured motorists pose a special threat to car-free cyclists since such a cyclist will not typically have uninsured or under-insured motorist coverage (See my detailed discussion on this topic here). If you live with anyone who owns a car you should be sure that you are named as an additional insured on the under-insured motorists provisions of their policy. In the event that you are a student and you can claim your parents' address as your permanent address, you should remain a named insured on your parents' auto policy for purposes of UM/UIM coverage.

What is a cyclist to do if they want to obtain uninsured motorist coverage? There doesn't seem to be a good solution to this problem at this point. Insurance companies are unwilling to issue UIM coverage to cyclists. Ray Thomas wrote a fairly comprehensive article on the subject for Oregon Cyclist Magazine wherein he basically suggests that car-free cyclists buy a crappy car for $350.00 and purchase as much uninsured motorist coverage as they want on the vehicle. Then if they are involved in an accident the UM/UIM portions of the policy are activated by the loss.

Cyclists should consider the possibility and implications of a catastrophic injury in the event of an accident. With as many uninsured or under-insured motorists as we have on Chicago's streets today, one can't really depend on a driver to have sufficient insurance coverage to cover a major injury. Cyclists need to explore their potential sources of insurance coverage including health insurance and any possible under-insured motorist coverage and be sure that they are prepared for the possibility of an accident or crash.