Central New York Injury Lawyer Blog
I just read about a bicycle accident case from Texas that teaches New York riders a BIG lesson. The lesson? Preserve the evidence! Read on.
The biker recently filed a products liability suit against Trek Bicycle Corporation, the bicycle manufacturer, claiming his 2002 Trek roadbike’s steering fork cracked, causing his handle bars to collapse, which in turn caused him to hit the pavement and suffer a severe brain injury. The poor guy has been in a coma ever since. (His family filed suit on his behalf). You can read about it here.
That’s all I know about the case, but I can already tell you what Trek’s defense will be. Either: (1) the biker misused or altered the bike, thus causing the crack in the steering fork at some time before the accident, or (2) the biker lost control of the bike, fell, and the crash itself caused the steering fork to crack and the handle bar to collapse.
If you have a curious mind, you might be asking, “how does this poor coma-stricken road biker beat trek? Doesn’t he, as plaintiff, have the burden of proof? And how does he prove a defect in the steering fork made him go down if he is in a coma?
Answer: If his family preserved the bicycle without altering it and brought it intact to his bicycle accident lawyer, the lawyer can hire an expert engineer specialized in bikes to carefully examine the fissures in the steering fork, and the entire bike, for evidence of how the accident happened, and how the crack was formed. But if they tossed the bike out, or messed around with it, they will have destroyed the evidence, and they will never be able to prove the case.
Moral of the story? If you go down on your bike, are seriously injured, and suspect it was the bike’s fault, don’t mess with the bike! Get it to your New York bicycle accident lawyer. He’ll get it to an expert engineer. That expert might even recommend that the steering fork be examined by a metallurgist, who will look with a microscope at the crack to better determine the cause. Was the metal too soft or brittle? Was there some microscopic defect in this piece of metal? If there is any manufacturing or design defect that caused this accident, Trek will be liable.
Keep safe!
Mike Bersani
Email me at: bersani@mbk-law.com I’d love to hear from you!
Michael G. Bersani, Esq.
mbk-law.com
Central NY Personal Injury Lawyer Michaels Bersani Kalabanka
1-315-253-3293