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Illinois’s Secretary of State issues a pamphlet every year advocating for wearing helmets while biking. The biking pamphlet calls helmets essential and states that wearing one reduces severe head and brain damage by 85 percent. Chicago also encourages riders to wear helmets when they rent one of the city’s 17,000 bicycles in the Divvy bike-sharing program.
Despite this, the law allows cyclists to choose whether they want to wear a helmet. Aside from messengers and delivery personnel, there are no mandatory Chicago bicycle helmet laws for cyclists.
Illinois is a tort, or at-fault, state for auto insurance. This means the negligent party responsible for an accident must pay for the other party’s injuries or death via an insurance settlement or litigation. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) released data claiming that 70 percent of bicyclist fatalities are due to head injuries, and helmets are the most effective way to reduce injuries and death.
Bicyclists who survive run-ins with automobiles are almost always left to heal from catastrophic injuries. These can include:
Motorists are considered negligent when their behavior fails to match how a reasonable, responsible person would act behind the wheel in the same situation. If a driver’s behavior is the cause of an accident, they must compensate for the injured cyclist’s medical bills, lost wages, emotional trauma, disfigurement, and property damage.
Even though Chicago does not enforce bicycle helmet laws for casual riders, city and state leaders encourage bicyclists to wear proper headgear that complies with the safety standards established by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM). Those injured in a bicycle accident with or without a helmet should consult with a skilled lawyer who could help them seek compensation for their injuries.
Insurance companies are huge corporations more interested in shareholders’ profits than people injured by those they insure. Adjusters notoriously offer low settlements after an insured motorist harms a bicyclist, pedestrian, or other driver. They may also blame the bicyclist and claim their injuries would not have occurred if they had been wearing a helmet. However, because Chicago does not have bicycle helmet laws for casual riders, moderate comparative negligence does not apply unless the cyclist commits some other form of negligence.
Our attorneys understand how insurers think, and are prepared to fight to win as much compensation as possible for individuals harmed by another’s negligence. An experienced lawyer could help injured cyclists negotiate with insurance companies and pursue necessary compensation for their injuries.
Unless you are a courier or delivery person, you are not required to wear a bicycle helmet on the streets and trails of Chicago. Regardless, you may wonder if you can seek compensation from a negligent motorist’s insurance company or a lawsuit to pay for what you have lost physically, financially, and emotionally after a wreck.
You can only collect compensation if you are less than 50 percent responsible for an accident, and your award will be reduced by your percentage of negligence. Because there are no Chicago bicycle helmet laws for casual riders, not wearing a helmet does not constitute negligence. If you are injured in an accident caused by another’s reckless or careless actions, call McCready Law now for help.