A bicycle seems like a natural way for people to get around in sunny Southern California, but it also carries some inherent dangers. Cyclists are forced to share the road with cars, trucks, buses and commercial vehicles. This leads to accidents, and cyclists are often in far more danger than any drivers on the road.
A recent tally was taken to see how many people were killed in Los Angeles alone, and it came in at a total of 26 deaths in 2017. Again, that’s not for the entire state, but just for one city during one year.
In Southern California, the study found that 62 people passed away in these incidents.
It is worth noting that prior years, after something of a biking boom in California, saw even more deadly accidents. These numbers represent a drop.
However, some bike safety experts do not think that the roads actually got safer or that drivers are sharing the roads more effectively. They just think that a lot of people stopped riding their bikes.
They say that was the consequence of the boom. Biking became very popular, but a lot of people who got into it a few years ago were discouraged by the dangerous roads. They didn’t enjoy trying to ride alongside vehicles and putting themselves in dangerous positions. Accident statistics shot up, and people noticed. They went back to driving cars, so the overall accident stats dropped again as only more dedicated cyclists were left.
This shows just how dangerous it can be to ride your bike in California. If you’re hit and injured, make sure you know all of the legal options at your disposal.
Source: Curbed Los Angeles, “Tally finds 26 people died while riding bikes last year in Los Angeles,” Mike Tinoco, accessed March 23, 2018
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