Bicycle Accident Lawyer in Downey

What do Downey’s crash figures show for bicycle accidents?

In the California Office of Traffic Safety rankings for 2023, where rank 1 is the worst in the group, Downey ranked 25th of 62 California cities its size for cyclists killed or injured, with 27 victims, a little worse than the middle of its group. Cyclists under 15 ranked 23rd of 62 with 3 victims. We are not going to inflate those numbers. What makes cycling in Downey difficult is the traffic a bicycle shares: the city ranked 3rd of 62 for total people killed and injured with 736 victims, 3rd of 62 for collisions between 9:00pm and 2:59am with 81, and 10th of 62 for hit and run with 64. These are rate-based rankings, weighted against an OTS population estimate of 111,891 and roughly 1,031,230 daily vehicle miles travelled, so they describe Downey against cities its size rather than against California as a whole.

A cyclist absorbs that traffic with nothing around them, which is why a bike case is rarely a minor case even where the cycling rank looks unremarkable. It also explains why most Downey cycling claims come down to two questions the rankings cannot answer: who had the right of way, and what the road surface was doing. Both are decided on physical evidence, the damage pattern on the bike and on the vehicle, the lane markings, whether a bike lane was present or obstructed, and any camera covering the junction. That evidence degrades quickly, and a damaged bike is often repaired or scrapped within days, so it should be preserved rather than repaired.

Walk Downey, the City’s Active Transportation Plan, completed in June 2021 as a $300,000 project funded entirely by the state’s Active Transportation Program, is the City’s own record of its cycling network. It recommended 33.6 miles of class II and class III bikeways, that is striped lanes and signed shared routes rather than physically separated paths, together with bike racks, corrals, lockers and changing and storage facilities. Its stated purpose included improving access to the regional assets Downey cyclists actually use, the San Gabriel River Bike Path, the Rio Hondo Bike Path, the I-5, I-605 and I-105 corridors, the Metro C Line and the Downey Link bus. Data collection ran to street and lane width measurements, traffic counts, observations of road user behaviour and video footage of each proposed bike route. Where a collision happens on a route the City surveyed and recommended, that record is relevant to what the City knew and when. Downey separately received $72,000 of Caltrans funding towards developing a Local Roadway Safety Plan, and we cannot confirm one has been adopted and published, so this firm makes no claim about a Downey high injury network.

Where the road itself contributed, through a surface defect, a drain grate, a utility cut or an obstructed bike lane, the defendant may be the City. Downey Public Works reports maintaining 210 miles of streets inside 12.6 square miles, and a claim against the City changes the timetable rather than just the defendant. California is a pure comparative fault state, so an argument about a cyclist’s lane position, or about a helmet, reduces a recovery rather than ending the claim.

Where is a Downey bicycle accident case filed, and what are the deadlines?

Government Code section 911.2 requires a written claim against a public entity within six months, filed with the Downey City Clerk at 11111 Brookshire Avenue, 3rd Floor, on (562) 904-7280, and the City states that claims will not be accepted electronically, so it goes by post or in person. Against a driver the period is generally two years under Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1, and where both apply the shorter one governs. A Downey cycling case is not filed in Downey. The Downey Courthouse at 7500 East Imperial Highway hears criminal and traffic matters only and has no civil division, so a civil injury claim cannot be filed or heard there. Local Rule 2.3(a)(1)(A) requires every unlimited civil action for bodily injury, wrongful death or damage to personal property to be filed in the judicial district where the incident arose. Downey sits in the Southeast District, and the Court’s own Filing Court Locator returns one answer for Downey addresses: the Norwalk Courthouse, 12720 Norwalk Boulevard.

More sits on the Downey personal injury page, and the wider practice on the Los Angeles bicycle accident page. Downey’s other collision pages cover car, pedestrian and motorcycle claims. If your matter is a drug, device or product claim rather than a collision, Broukhim Legal PC also takes on mass tort and complex litigation work for people living in and around Downey.