Nevada bicycle accidents involving motor vehicles generate serious, often catastrophic injuries — fractures, head trauma, road rash requiring skin grafting, and spinal injuries are common when an unprotected cyclist is struck by a vehicle. Nevada law gives cyclists full vehicle rights on public roads, but proving fault and recovering full compensation requires understanding how bicycle accident claims differ from standard car accident cases.
Nevada Bicycle Rights and Driver Duties
Under NRS 484B.767, a person riding a bicycle has all the rights and duties applicable to the driver of a vehicle on a public road. This means cyclists may use full travel lanes on roads without bike lanes, are entitled to the same right-of-way protections as other vehicles, and are owed the same duty of reasonable care by other drivers. NRS 484B.270 requires drivers to give bicyclists at least 3 feet of clearance when passing. Common crash patterns include the right hook (driver turning right crosses the cyclist path), the left cross (driver turning left cuts across the cyclist path into an intersection), dooring (driver or passenger opening a car door into the cyclist path), and the unsafe pass (driver squeezes past without adequate clearance). Each crash pattern has associated negligence theories — failure to yield, failure to signal, failure to check mirrors, failure to maintain 3-foot clearance — that establish liability independent of comparative fault arguments about the cyclist.
Helmet Use and Nevada Comparative Fault
Nevada does not require adult cyclists to wear helmets. A defense argument that an unhelmeted adult cyclist was negligent in failing to wear a helmet — and that this negligence reduces their recovery for head injuries — is a recognized but limited defense. The counter-argument focuses on medical causation: whether a helmet would actually have prevented or reduced the specific head injury at issue. A neurologist or biomechanical expert can address whether the injury mechanism (type of impact, force direction, impact surface) is the type a helmet is designed to mitigate. Head injuries caused by mechanisms that helmet use would not meaningfully prevent — direct facial impact, rotational brain injury from lateral impact — undermine the helmet defense. Non-head injuries are not subject to the helmet defense at all, which is significant since most serious bicycle accident injuries involve orthopedic and internal injuries as well as head trauma.
Contact Marathon Law Group
Marathon Law Group represents Nevada bicycle accident victims injured by motor vehicle drivers. Contact us for a free consultation.