New Jersey Accident and Injury Law Blog : New Jersey Injury Lawyer & Attorney : The Grossman Law Firm : Serving Monmouth County, Bergen County

When it comes to preventing auto accidents, there's plenty of good effective advice. Always drive at safe speeds, and don't drive under the influence of alcohol. However, you don’t come across easy advice on preventing bike accidents. That’s because bicyclists face unique challenges as they ride on New Jersey streets.

Bicycling Magazine has a list of the five most frequent bicycle-car accidents. The list includes the five most common bicycle crash scenarios, and also steps to prevent these.

The situations include a few that bicyclists in New Jersey frequently come across. For instance, a bicyclist may find that a motorist passes him on the left, and then tries to turn right into the bicyclist. Another frequent bicycle-car accident situation that often causes a bicyclist serious injuries, is when a biker is passing a line of parked cars, and one of the car doors is suddenly opened. 

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A new bicycling group was formed this month in New Jersey, with the aim of giving a voice to approximately 1 million bikers in the state. The New Jersey Bicycle Coalition hopes to draw attention to the approximately 50 bicycle accidents that occur in New Jersey every week, and the more than 160 bicycle crash-related fatalities that occur every year.

Bicyclists in New Jersey face the same challenges that you see across the country- lack of awareness by motorists, motorist negligence, lack of sensitivity by law-enforcement officials, lack of bike infrastructure, and lack of other bicycle safety provisions. In New Jersey however, there are larger numbers of bicyclists taking to the roads every year. The state has unfortunately fallen behind on developing infrastructure, and strengthening law-enforcement procedures to make it safer for bikers to use our roads. NJ police officers tend to have limited knowledge of bicycle safety laws, and this frequently puts bicyclists in a situation where their right rights are compromised.

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A new report shows that bicycle injuries in the country are becoming much more severe, and require much longer hospitalization time. The study also shows that in spite of efforts, helmet use has not increased significantly.

The study was conducted on 329 bicycle accident injuries admitted to the Rocky Mountain Regional Trauma Center at Denver Health Medical Center during a 10-year period.

• The findings showed that chest injury rates in bicycle accidents have increased by about 15 percent.
• Rates of abdominal injuries have increased three-fold over the past 5 years.
• Helmet use has not increased significantly, with the result that 1/3 of the subjects suffered from a head injury.

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Last month, the Point Pleasant community in Ocean County, New Jersey marked Bicycle Safety Day at Community Park. The event was conducted by the local police department, and funded by a grant from the Division of Highway Traffic Safety.

The event was held partly in memory of 14-year-old Katy Ventura, who died in a bicycle accident on the 3^rd of August.

The Brian Injury Association of New Jersey  participated in the event, offering new helmets to those who needed them. A representative of the Association was on hand to demonstrate the proper way to wear a helmet. Brain injuries are some of the more frequent injuries that bicyclists suffer, and helmets can help prevent these to a large degree.

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Carrying on in the tradition of legislation named after victims, aimed at preventing repeats of the heinous actions that cost their lives, new legislation that will require drunk drivers in New Jersey to install ignition lock devices on their cars, could soon be passed.

The bill is called Ricci's Law, named after Ricci Branca, a 17-year-old boy from Egg Harbor Township, Atlantic County who was killed in a drunk driving accident. Ricci was biking to Ocean City with a bunch of friends, when Stephen Fench slammed his car into the group. The friends escaped with minor injuries. Ricci died from injuries sustained in the crash. Fench, it was revealed later was not only a repeat DUI offender, but had a blood alcohol level of .339 at the time of the crash. That's more than four times the legal limit in New Jersey of 0.08.   The police reported that  he spent the four hours before the accident drinking up to 10 glasses of wine at a nearby bar. Since, then Fench has been sentenced to 16 years in prison.

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  Image courtesy: Flickr - MoBikeFed

When gas prices began their stratospheric rise over last spring and summer, more New Jersey residents threw away their car keys, and dusted off their bicycles to be able to cope, a move that is being pointed to an increase in the number of deaths in bicycle accidents across the state.

As of early December, a total of 22 people had been killed in bicycle accidents in New Jersey compared to last year, as well as the year before. In fact, the fatality numbers this year are the highest they have been in six years. Most of the fatalities that occurred as a result of bicycle accidents this year, including the three that took place in Morris County, were related to people who were going to or returning from work at the time of the crash.  The numbers have been distressing enough for the New Jersey Division of Highway Traffic to plan new safety initiatives targeted at the bicycling community before the new year.

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