The first thing an adjuster will suggest is that you should not have been on the road.
It is a comfortable assumption and it is wrong. Under Florida law you had every right to be there, and the driver had a specific legal duty toward you that most drivers have never read. Our West Palm Beach bicycle accident lawyers spend a lot of time correcting that assumption, because until it is corrected, no reasonable offer arrives.
Rosenthal, Levy, Simon & Sosa Injury Lawyers has been fighting for the injured in Palm Beach County since 1985. Free consultation, available 24 hours a day, English and Spanish. +1 (866) 640-7117.
Table of contents
- Do Cyclists Have the Same Rights as Drivers in Florida?
- What Is Florida's Three Foot Passing Law?
- What the Crash Data Says About Riding Here
- Where Do These Crashes Happen Here?
- The Injuries Riders Actually Come to Us With
- Does Auto Insurance Cover a Bicycle Crash?
- What Happens If the Insurer Blames You?
- What Should You Do at the Scene of a Bicycle Crash?
- Deadlines, and the Evidence That Expires First
- Why Riders in West Palm Beach Call Our Firm
- Bicycle Accident Questions From West Palm Beach Riders
- You Had a Right to That Road
Do Cyclists Have the Same Rights as Drivers in Florida?
Yes, and the statute says so directly. Section 316.2065 provides that a person propelling a vehicle by human power has all the rights and all the duties of the driver of any other vehicle.
That single sentence disposes of most of what insurers argue. You were not trespassing in traffic. You were operating a vehicle.
The duties run both directions, which is worth knowing before an adjuster raises them. Cyclists moving slower than traffic generally ride in the bike lane or as close to the right curb as practicable, with real exceptions built into the statute for overtaking, preparing to turn left, avoiding hazards, and lanes too narrow to share safely. Riders may travel two abreast but not more, and must stay within a single lane.
Knowing the exceptions matters. Riders get blamed constantly for taking the lane in circumstances where the statute expressly allowed it.
What Is Florida's Three Foot Passing Law?
A driver overtaking a bicycle in the same travel lane must pass at a distance of not less than three feet. If that cannot be done safely, the driver must stay behind until it can. These rules can be important when determining responsibility after a bicycle accident.
The rule lives in Section 316.083(2), which the Legislature expanded in 2021. The same three foot minimum applies when a rider is in a bicycle lane. It does not apply where the rider is in a physically separated bicycle lane.
In practice this is the most useful statute in a sideswipe or buzz-pass case. The question stops being whether the driver was careless in some general sense and becomes whether they gave three feet. That is a concrete, measurable failure that a jury understands and an adjuster has a hard time talking around.
Talk to a lawyer about your crash today. +1 (866) 640-7117.
What the Crash Data Says About Riding Here
Riding in Palm Beach County is measurably dangerous, and the numbers behind that are public.
Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office figures for a recent year recorded 59 pedestrians and cyclists killed, more than 141 seriously injured, and over 1,700 collisions involving people walking or riding. The county ranked sixth in Florida for serious traffic injuries to walkers and bikers among counties over 200,000 residents. These risks are especially concerning for anyone injured in a hit-and-run bicycle accident, who may face additional challenges identifying the driver responsible.
Zoom out and it gets worse. Smart Growth America's Dangerous by Design 2026 rankings place the Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach metro 17th of the 101 largest US metros, with 1,062 pedestrian deaths across five years of data. Florida ranks fifth among all states. Nine of the 27 most dangerous metros in the country are Florida metros.
Nationally, NHTSA counted 1,103 bicyclist deaths in 2024, with Florida accounting for 208 of them, roughly one in five.
None of that is offered as reassurance. It is offered because insurers treat cycling as a fringe activity by unusually reckless people, and the record shows something different: ordinary riders on roads that were never designed for them.
Where Do These Crashes Happen Here?
Along the corridors where fast traffic and riders share space without separation.
Flagler Drive is the most visible example. The city's waterfront study has proposed reducing it from four lanes to two with expanded bike and pedestrian paths, a proposal that has been contested locally for exactly the reason it was made. Speeding on that stretch has been a recurring complaint from residents in the coverage of the proposal.
Beyond the waterfront, the county's high-crash intersection data tells the rest. North Military Trail and Okeechobee Boulevard recorded 119 crashes in a single recent year, the worst intersection in Palm Beach County. South Military Trail and Forest Hill Boulevard recorded 101. Across the county's 200 busiest intersections, crashes rose roughly 36% over five years.
Riders here also deal with something drivers rarely think about. Palm Beach County collects its official traffic counts during the winter peak season, precisely because that is when the roads carry their heaviest volume. Riding in February is not riding in August, and the driver who passed you too close may be someone who has been on that road for three weeks.
The Injuries Riders Actually Come to Us With
Bicycle crash injuries tend to be serious, because there is nothing between a rider and the vehicle.
The common patterns:
Head injuries, including concussion. A helmet reduces risk and does not eliminate it, and Florida does not require adults to wear one.
Fractures to the collarbone, wrist, hip and lower leg, typically from the rider's landing rather than the impact itself.
Spinal injury, from mild disc involvement to injuries with permanent consequences.
Road rash and degloving injuries that look superficial in a photograph and require grafting.
Internal injuries from handlebar contact, which is a mechanism emergency physicians watch for specifically.
A seriously injured rider in West Palm Beach is generally transported to a trauma center rather than the nearest emergency room. The Florida Department of Health maintains the state trauma system, and Palm Beach County has two Level I centers.
Does Auto Insurance Cover a Bicycle Crash?
Usually yes, through your own policy, even though you were not in a car.
This is the point most riders do not know, and it changes the financial picture immediately.
Personal Injury Protection. If you or a resident relative owns a car with Florida PIP coverage, that coverage generally follows you as a pedestrian or cyclist struck by a motor vehicle. Florida requires at least $10,000 in PIP insurance. Under Section 627.736 you must get initial care within 14 days, and the full $10,000 applies only where a provider determines you had an emergency medical condition. Otherwise it stops at $2,500.
The driver's bodily injury liability coverage, once fault is established and Florida's injury threshold is met.
Uninsured motorist coverage on your own auto policy, which matters enormously in this practice area because so many drivers who hit cyclists leave the scene.
Health insurance, coordinated with the above.
Riders regularly assume that not owning a car means no coverage. Bring us the household's policies before you accept that conclusion.
What Happens If the Insurer Blames You?
Your recovery drops by your share of fault, and disappears entirely above 50%.
Section 768.81(6) sets Florida's modified comparative negligence rule. Anyone found more than 50% responsible for their own harm recovers nothing.
Against cyclists, the arguments are predictable: no helmet, no lights, dark clothing, riding outside the bike lane, running a stop sign. Some of those have legal weight and some have none. Helmet use, for instance, is not required for adult riders, and its relevance is far narrower than adjusters imply.
Each argument is answerable. Answering them requires evidence gathered early, which is the practical reason to call before you give a statement.
What Should You Do at the Scene of a Bicycle Crash?
Call law enforcement even if the driver offers to handle it privately, and get the crash documented.
Riders frequently skip the report because they feel functional at the scene, which is a decision that costs them later. Adrenaline masks injury for hours, and without a report there is no independent record that a motor vehicle was involved at all.
Beyond the report, a few things help disproportionately.
Photograph the driver's vehicle including the point of contact, your bicycle from several angles, the road surface and any bike lane markings, and the position of both before anything moves.
Get names and phone numbers for witnesses directly rather than assuming the officer collected them.
Do not negotiate with the driver at the scene, and do not accept a stated version of events you are not certain about.
Preserve the bicycle exactly as it is. A bent fork or a specific frame failure tells a reconstructionist the direction and force of impact, and a repair erases that.
Deadlines, and the Evidence That Expires First
You have two years from the crash to file most Florida negligence claims, under Section 95.11(5)(a). Cases that proceed to suit are filed in the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, main courthouse on North Dixie Highway in West Palm Beach.
The evidence timeline is much tighter. Your bicycle itself is evidence, and its damage pattern tells an accident reconstructionist where and how the vehicle struck. Do not repair it or throw it away. Photograph your injuries as they change, keep the clothing you were wearing, and preserve any cycling computer or phone data from the ride.
Why Riders in West Palm Beach Call Our Firm
We treat a bicycle claim as a vehicle collision claim, because Florida law says that is what it is.
Rosenthal, Levy, Simon & Sosa Injury Lawyers has been in practice in Palm Beach County since 1985, from offices in West Palm Beach and Port St. Lucie. If you need a West Palm Beach personal injury lawyer, our attorneys and staff work in English and Spanish, consultations cost nothing, and someone is available at any hour.
For a rider, that means:
- Establishing the three foot passing violation where the facts support it, rather than arguing general carelessness
- Locating your PIP and uninsured motorist coverage even when you do not own the car
- Preserving the bicycle, the clothing and any ride data before they are discarded
- Pushing back on helmet and visibility arguments with what the statute actually requires
- Handling every adjuster conversation so the blame narrative does not set early
No fee unless we recover for you.
Free case review. +1 (866) 640-7117.
Bicycle Accident Questions From West Palm Beach Riders
I was not wearing a helmet. Does that ruin my claim?
No. Florida does not require adult cyclists to wear helmets, and the absence of one is not automatic fault for the crash. Insurers raise it to argue your injuries would have been less severe, which is a narrower point and one that depends on the actual injury. It does not affect who caused the collision.
The driver says I came out of nowhere. How do I disprove that?
Through physical evidence rather than argument. Damage patterns on your bicycle, the driver's impact point, sightline analysis at the location, and any nearby camera footage all establish approach angles and speeds. Witnesses matter too. What the driver perceived and what actually happened are different questions.
Can I get money for my bike and gear as well as my injuries?
Yes. Property damage covers the bicycle, helmet, cycling computer, shoes, clothing and accessories damaged in the crash, at their value rather than what you paid years ago. Keep receipts and photographs. On higher-end bicycles this can be a meaningful part of the claim rather than an afterthought.
What if I was riding on the sidewalk when I got hit?
You may still have a claim. Florida allows sidewalk riding in many places, and a rider on a sidewalk generally has the rights and duties of a pedestrian, which affects crosswalk and driveway situations. These details can help determine who is liable in pedestrian and bicycle accidents. Local ordinances vary by municipality. Tell us exactly where it happened so the right rule gets applied.
How long will my bicycle accident case take?
It depends on treatment more than on the courthouse. Most claims are not resolved until your medical condition stabilizes, because settling earlier means guessing at future care. Straightforward claims can conclude in months; serious injuries with permanent consequences take longer. We would rather explain a realistic timeline than promise a fast one.
You Had a Right to That Road
Nobody rides in West Palm Beach without a story about a driver who passed too close. The difference between an alarming moment and a hospital admission is often a foot of space the law already required.
If a driver hit you while you were riding anywhere in Palm Beach County, talk to us before you talk to their insurance company. The consultation is free, we answer 24 hours a day, and we handle these claims in English and Spanish.
Rosenthal, Levy, Simon & Sosa Injury Lawyers. Fighting For The Injured Since 1985. +1 (866) 640-7117