Buffalo Bicycle Accident Lawyers
Bicycle Accidents
Since 1944, Lewis & Lewis has represented cyclists struck on Delaware, Broadway, Niagara, Main, Grant, South Park, and every Buffalo street where the bike-and-car conflict actually happens.
You didn’t get hit because you were reckless. You got hit because a driver opened a door without checking the lane, turned right across your line, failed to yield to you at traffic light, or drifted into space they weren’t supposed to be in. That reality shapes every Buffalo bicycle case we handle, and we build strategy on the mechanism of your crash, not on the driver’s version of it.
Free Case Review – No out-of-pocket fees
How Buffalo Bicycle Accident Claims Actually Work
A Buffalo bicycle accident case usually has two moving parts running at the same time:
- No-Fault Benefits: Medical bills and a portion of lost wages, paid by the driver’s auto insurance regardless of who was at fault.
- Bodily Injury Claim: Pain and suffering damages, which require your injuries to meet the “serious injury threshold” under NY Insurance Law §5102(d).
Most Buffalo crashes we see follow one of a handful of predictable patterns. The pattern tells us who is likely at fault and what evidence we need to build the case.
Why Buffalo Bicycle Cases Require a Specific Strategy
Buffalo is not a generic city for a bike case. Dense street-parking corridors like Elmwood, Allentown, and Delaware Avenue produce dooring cases. High-speed arterials like Niagara Street, Main Street, and Genesee create right-hook and rear-end crashes. Neighborhoods without dedicated bike lanes force cyclists into shared-lane conflicts that carriers exploit in negotiations.
We know these streets, and we know what carriers do when a cyclist files.
- What Insurance Adjusters Do: Argue you were riding “too fast,” “in the wrong place,” or “without a helmet.” None of those defenses automatically defeats a New York cyclist’s claim.
- What We Do: Anchor the case in the specific traffic violation the driver committed — VTL §1214 for dooring, VTL §1146 for failing to exercise due care around cyclists, VTL §1163 for unsafe turning.
Do not let an adjuster convince you that riding a bike in Buffalo makes the crash “partly your fault” by default. It does not.
What Counts as a Serious Injury Under NY Insurance Law §5102(d)
To bring a pain and suffering claim in New York, your injuries have to meet one of the categories in Insurance Law §5102(d). If they don’t, you can still recover medical bills and lost wages through No-Fault, but pain and suffering damages are off the table.
The categories that most often apply to bicycle crashes:
- Fracture of any bone — the single most common category clearing the threshold in bike cases.
- Significant disfigurement, including road-rash scarring and surgical scars.
- Permanent loss of use of a body organ, member, function, or system.
- Permanent consequential limitation of use of a body organ or member.
- Significant limitation of use of a body function or system.
- Dismemberment, death, or loss of a fetus in the most catastrophic cases.
The Fix: Your medical records need to use the same language the statute uses. You need objective medical evidence of the injury caused by the collision and clear explanation of any limitations compared to normal. oVague documentation is where these cases get contested. We work with your treating providers early so the record reflects what actually happened to you.
Does my injury clear the threshold? Get a free review
Dooring Accidents in Elmwood, Allentown, and Downtown
Dooring is the single most common bike-vs-car crash type in dense Buffalo neighborhoods with on-street parking. Elmwood Village, Allentown, downtown, and the Main Street commercial spine see the highest volume.
New York VTL §1214 makes it illegal to open a car door on the traffic side of a vehicle “until it is reasonably safe to do so and can be done without interfering with the movement of other traffic.” A violation of §1214 is negligence per se in New York, the driver’s fault is legally established the moment the violation is proven.
The injuries are rarely minor. A cyclist thrown into the traffic lane after a door strike often ends up hit a second time by another vehicle, or sustains fractures and head injuries from the fall itself.
If you were doored:
- Photograph the door, the vehicle, the parking sign, and the roadway if you can.
- Get the driver’s name, license, insurance, and registration.
- File a police report the same day, even if you feel functional.
Do not accept an on-scene apology or offer of cash to walk away. Injuries from dooring routinely worsen in the 24 to 72 hours after the crash, and a case that starts undocumented is much harder to prove.
When the Driver Was Uninsured or Fled the Scene
If the driver had no insurance, or if the driver left the scene and cannot be identified, you can still recover through the Motor Vehicle Accident Indemnification Corporation (MVAIC). MVAIC pays No-Fault benefits and can, in some cases, be pursued for bodily injury.
- The 90-Day Deadline: A notice of claim must be filed within 90 days of the accident. This is a hard deadline. Miss it and MVAIC coverage is usually lost.
- Your Own Policy Matters: If you or your household has auto insurance, your Supplementary Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist (SUM) coverage often applies to bike crashes. Most cyclists forget that their own auto policy protects them even when they were on a bike.
Hit and run or uninsured driver? Call (716) 854-2100 within 90 days
Delivery Riders & Couriers: Two Claims at Once
If you were delivering food, packages, or working as a bike courier when a driver hit you, you may have two concurrent cases:
- Personal Injury: Against the driver and their insurance for medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering.
- Workers’ Compensation: Against your employer for medical bills and a portion of your wages while you recover.
Delivery cyclists working for DoorDash, Uber Eats, Instacart, and local couriers are often labeled as independent contractors when, under New York workers’ compensation tests, they may actually be employees. That classification matters, and it is fact-specific.
- Our Approach: Bring us your pay records, app screenshots, the vehicle information of the driver who hit you, and any incident reports. We will identify every carrier that may owe you benefits and coordinate the two cases so a settlement in one does not undercut the other.
The Filing Deadlines You Cannot Miss
Deadlines in bicycle cases are unforgiving. Miss one and the claim is usually gone.
- 30 days — Insurance Regulation: No-Fault application should be filed with the driver’s insurer.
- 3 years — CPLR §214: Deadline to file a personal injury lawsuit against a private driver.
- 90 days — GML §50-e: Deadline to file a notice of claim against a municipal defendant (a City of Buffalo pothole, a government-owned vehicle, a county road hazard, a school-district vehicle).
- 1 year and 90 days — GML §50-i: Deadline to file suit against a municipal defendant after the notice.
Bike cases against municipal defendants require early legal advice more than almost any other kind of personal injury case. Ninety days disappears fast when you are recovering from a serious injury.
Ask Lewis & Lewis
I wasn't wearing a helmet when a car hit me on my bike. Does that ruin my case?
New York adult cyclists have no helmet requirement — helmets are only required for riders under 14. Failure to wear a helmet does not bar your recovery. The defense may raise it as a comparative-negligence argument if the head injury is the central issue, but it is not the end of the case.
The driver said I was riding too fast or in the wrong place. Does that matter?
Yes. If you are found more than 50% at fault, you cannot recover. Until very recently New York used pure comparative negligence under CPLR §1411, which means your recovery was reduced by your share of fault but not eliminated even if you were 99% at fault.
Now, as long as you are 50% or less at fault, your recovery will be reduced by your percentage of fault. If you are more than 50% at fault, you cannot recover. For example, a cyclist found 30 percent at fault still recovers 70 percent of full damages. The defense’s version of events is a factor, but does not end the inquiry.
My kid was hit on their bike near school. Is that a different kind of case?
Yes and no. The personal injury framework is the same, but a child’s statute of limitations is tolled until age 18. There is more time to file, and damages reflect the effect of the injury on a developing person. The 90-day municipal notice rule still applies if the defendant is a school district or municipality — call early.
I already have health insurance. Do I still need to file No-Fault?
Yes. In New York, No-Fault is primary for auto-related injuries. The driver’s auto insurance is supposed to pay medical bills before your health insurance is billed, and filing a No-Fault application within 30 days is important even if you also have health coverage.
How much does a Buffalo bicycle accident lawyer cost?
Nothing up front. Bicycle accident cases at Lewis & Lewis, P.C. are handled on a contingency-fee basis, which means the attorney fee is a percentage of any recovery. If there is no recovery, you owe no fee.
How long does a Buffalo bicycle accident case take?
Cases with clear liability – negligence and a “serious injury” as defined by the Insurance Law,, completion of medical treatment, and cooperative insurance can resolve in months. Contested cases, cases against municipal defendants, and cases involving serious permanent injury usually take a year or longer. The timeline follows the medical picture — settlement conversations rarely happen until the injuries have stabilized enough to value them accurately. And if liability is disputed the litigation process involving the exchange of information called discovery, depositions, motion practice and the rest takes substantial time that does not start until a lawsuit is commenced. And it is not unusual for cases to take years to move through the courts.
What if my bicycle injury was minor at first but got worse?
Report the crash and see a doctor the day it happens, even if you feel functional. Concussion symptoms, soft-tissue injuries, and delayed pain from wrist and shoulder trauma are common in bike crashes. Documentation from the first 72 hours is often the difference between a strong claim and a contested one.
Do you handle bicycle cases outside the City of Buffalo?
Yes. Our team handles cyclist cases across Erie County and Western New York from our offices in Buffalo, Depew, Niagara Falls, Batavia, Olean, and Jamestown. See Buffalo pedestrian accident claims for our related vulnerable-road-user work and the broader Buffalo personal injury process for how our PI department handles claims from intake through resolution.
Talk to a Buffalo Bicycle Accident Attorney This Week
Lewis & Lewis, P.C. has offices in Buffalo, Depew, Niagara Falls, Batavia, Olean, and Jamestown. Since 1944, our firm has recovered more than $1 billion for injured people across Western New York, including cyclists hurt in the exact intersections and dooring zones where the pattern hasn’t changed in decades.
Bring us the police report, photos of the scene and your bike, any No-Fault application you have started, and your medical records to date. We will read them together and tell you where the case actually stands.
Call (716) 854-2100 for a free case review, or use the form on this page and one of our attorneys will contact you within one business day.
Authoritative reference resources: NHTSA bicycle safety · CDC bicycle safety data · NY Courts Statute of Limitations chart
Lewis & Lewis – Personal Injury Lawyer – Buffalo Office Location
Address: 37 Franklin Street #800 Buffalo, NY 14202
Phone: (716) 442-8987
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Satisfied Client Stories
”I liked Lewis & Lewis from the beginning when they helped me sort through all the paperwork-related to my injury. They really helped me get organized. But what really impressed me was when my Lewis & Lewis personal injury lawyer obtained thousands of dollars in workers’ compensation benefits that I didn’t even know I was entitled to. My attorney worked hard to get me paid.
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