DOGS…
I love Dogs… But… they can be a REAL nuisance to cyclists & pedestrians… To the cyclist they present a couple of problems… first, you could get bit by a dog. However, I’ve done over 50 “dog/bike” cases and in only a few was the cyclist actually bitten. Rather, dogs like to chase cyclists… sometimes they simply run into them …. or in front of them… I had one case where some German Shepherds came onto the road and split up a group of riders, cornering the last one. She tried to stop but fell over and suffered an ulnar nerve injury treated by doctors and her hand… the dogs ran back to the porch. I’ve had cases involving bicycle crashes caused by huge dogs and cases with puppies – cases with vicious dogs that attack and cases with big old friendly dogs that walk up and lick your hand after they caused you to crash!
In each case the cyclist got hurt – sometimes very badly. In each of those situations the dog owner is liable to the cyclist for typical “personal injury” damages. This includes paying all medical bills, wage loss and other out of pockets as well as covering any future treatment, permanent injuries and “pain and suffering.” Since many jurors find dog attacks very scary, the risk to the dog owner is that a jury will award a bigger verdict. In each case reflected above we successfully recovered money from the dog owner -typically through the homeowner’s policy.