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Hit by a driver on Monument Boulevard, Treat Boulevard, or a trail crossing? The insurance company is already building a story where the crash was your fault. Our main office is right here in Concord, and we have been representing injured Californians since 1973.
While you wait:
Plenty of law firms “serve” Concord from an office an hour away. We are not one of them. Scranton Law Firm’s main office is at 2450 Stanwell Dr, in Concord, and it has been our home base for decades.
That matters for practical reasons, not sentimental ones. We know which Concord corridors put cyclists in danger and why. We know the local hospitals your records will come from, the police agencies that write the crash reports, and the Contra Costa County Superior Court in Martinez where a lawsuit gets filed if the insurer will not pay. When you want to sit across a table from your lawyer instead of talking to a call center, you can.
Bicycle crashes are one part of what we do here at home. As a Concord personal injury lawyer we handle car accidents and motorcycle accidents across the city, and we represent injured cyclists statewide through our California bicycle accident practice. This page covers what is different when the crash happens here in Concord.
A bicycle claim is not a car claim with a smaller vehicle. The injuries are worse, the fault fight is nastier, and a handful of California rules come up in nearly every file. A lawyer who treats your case like a fender-bender will leave money on the table.
Adjusters reach for the same lines in almost every bike case: the rider “came out of nowhere,” was “going too fast,” or “should have been in the bike lane.” We answer with independent evidence, not arguments: scene photos, witness accounts, video, and the Vehicle Code sections the driver violated.
California follows pure comparative negligence. Even if an insurer convinces someone you were partly at fault, you can still recover, reduced by your percentage. That is exactly why adjusters inflate cyclist fault, and exactly why we fight over every percentage point.
Officers arrive after the crash and frequently accept the driver’s version, especially when the cyclist left in an ambulance and never gave a statement. A police report is not the final word on fault. Reports can be challenged and overcome with witness testimony and reconstruction.
A cyclist takes the full force of a multi-ton vehicle with no cage, no airbags, and no seatbelt. Head trauma, spinal injuries, and fractures are common even at modest speeds, and long-term care often dominates the value of the claim.
Concord is a riding city: commuters crossing town, road cyclists heading for Clayton and the Diablo foothills, families on the trails. Most of the serious crashes we see involve a short list of corridors and conflict points.
A dense, busy corridor with heavy driveway and intersection traffic. Drivers turning across through-riding cyclists, and close passes in congested stretches, are the recurring patterns here.
Fast, wide arterials that riders use to cross the city and reach the Diablo foothills. Higher speeds mean worse outcomes when a driver drifts into the shoulder, passes too close, or turns without looking.
Around Todos Santos Plaza and the downtown grid, the risks are urban: doorings next to parked cars, right-turning drivers crossing bike lanes, and pull-outs from driveways and parking lots.
A major commute route between Concord and Walnut Creek. Intersection conflicts and unsafe passing on the long, fast blocks produce serious injuries to riders.
The Iron Horse Regional Trail and the Contra Costa Canal Trail are separated from traffic until they aren’t. At-grade street crossings are where trail riders meet drivers, and drivers often are not looking for them.
On-ramps and off-ramps concentrate fast, merging traffic exactly where cyclists on the crossing streets are most exposed. The highest-speed crashes we see cluster around the 242 and 680 interchange areas.
We have covered Concord cyclist crashes on our own news pages, including a bicyclist struck and killed on Highway 242 and a cyclist critically injured in a Concord hit-and-run. If a crash like these has touched your family, call us at 1-800-707-0707.
Cyclists have a legal right to Concord’s roads, and the Vehicle Code backs that right with specific rules. When a driver breaks one of them and hurts you, that violation becomes the backbone of your claim.
The first hours decide a lot. Your bike is evidence. Your helmet is evidence. Even your ride data is evidence. Adrenaline will tell you that you’re fine when you are not.
If you were recording on Strava, a Garmin or Wahoo head unit, or a phone app, export and save the ride file. GPS data can show your speed, your position in the lane, and the exact moment of impact. It is some of the most objective evidence a cyclist has, and most riders never think to preserve it.
Bike cases are won on proof, not sympathy. Because insurers attack cyclist fault so aggressively, the evidence below matters more in a bicycle claim than almost anywhere else. Most of it disappears fast if nobody moves to preserve it.
Frame damage, fork direction, wheel deformation, and helmet cracks show impact direction and force. Repairing or tossing them destroys your best physical evidence.
Strava, Garmin, Wahoo, and phone app files record speed and position second by second. They can flatly disprove the “cyclist was flying” story adjusters lean on.
Bike cameras, the driver’s or witnesses’ dashcams, and surveillance from businesses along corridors like Monument and Willow Pass. Most commercial systems overwrite within days, so preservation letters have to go out immediately.
Skid marks, debris fields, lane striping, sight lines, and sun position. For disputed-liability cases, our reconstruction experts build the crash from exactly this material.
Independent witnesses neutralize the “he came out of nowhere” defense faster than anything else. Names and numbers collected at the scene are gold. We follow up and lock in statements early.
A medical record created the day of the crash connects your injuries to the collision before the insurer can blame a gap in treatment or a prior condition.
Miss these and you may lose your right to recover entirely:
Statute of limitations from the crash date (Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 335.1)
Dangerous road conditions, defective trail crossings, City of Concord, Contra Costa County, or Caltrans (Gov. Code § 911.2)
Most auto policies require prompt notice, including for UM/UIM claims after a hit-and-run
The six-month deadline trips up more cyclists than any other. If a pothole, broken pavement, missing signage, or a badly designed trail crossing played any role in your crash, the claim may run against a city, the county, or Caltrans, and the clock is brutally short. Do not sit on it.
Within days of a bike crash, the driver’s insurer will call sounding friendly and asking for a recorded statement “to clarify what happened.” Decline. Adjusters are trained to extract phrases they can turn into cyclist fault: “I was moving pretty quick,” “I didn’t see them until late,” “I feel okay today.” Polite refusal works fine: “Please direct all questions to my attorney.” Then call us at 1-800-707-0707.
If the driver fled or carries no insurance, the claim usually moves to the Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist coverage on your own auto policy, or a policy in your household. Many cyclists do not realize their car insurance protects them on the bike. It generally does, and using it properly, without saying things that sink the claim, is part of what we handle.
A complete bicycle claim accounts for everything the crash took, including what it will keep taking years from now, not just the bills sitting in your mailbox today:
Call 1-800-707-0707 any time, or walk into our Concord office. We listen, answer your questions honestly, and tell you whether you have a case worth pursuing. No commitment. No fee.
We pull the Concord PD or CHP report, send preservation letters for camera footage along the crash corridor, photograph and store the bike and gear, secure your ride data, and contact witnesses.
We connect you with orthopedists, neurologists, and physical therapists who treat on a lien basis. You get care now and pay from the settlement, not out of pocket.
For disputed fault, doorings, right hooks, and road-defect claims, we retain accident reconstructionists and, where the roadway itself contributed, roadway-design experts, while the government claim clock is still running.
Once you reach maximum medical improvement, we send a demand built on the full picture of past and future losses and negotiate from strength, not hope.
If the carrier won’t pay what the case is worth, we file with the Contra Costa County Superior Court at the Wakefield Taylor Courthouse in Martinez. Most cases still settle. A credible threat of trial is what produces serious offers.
We pull crash reports for our clients as part of intake. You don’t have to deal with the bureaucracy yourself.
More Concord injury help:
Call 911 and get a police report. Concord PD covers city streets; CHP handles Highway 242 and the freeways. Photograph the car, the driver’s license and insurance, your bike, your helmet, the road, and your injuries, and get witness names before they leave. See a doctor the same day even if you feel fine. Do not repair the bike, and do not give the other driver’s insurer a recorded statement.
Yes. California follows pure comparative negligence. Even a cyclist found partly at fault can recover damages, reduced by their percentage of fault. Adjusters overstate cyclist fault precisely because every percentage point saves them money. We push back with scene evidence, witness accounts, and the Vehicle Code violations the driver committed, like the three-foot passing law (Veh. Code § 21760).
California only requires bicycle helmets for riders under 18 (Veh. Code § 21212). An adult riding without one has broken no law. At most, the insurer can argue the missing helmet contributed to head injuries specifically. Your other damages, broken bones, road rash, lost wages, the bike itself, are unaffected.
Often, yes. Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist (UM/UIM) coverage on your own auto policy, or on a household family member’s policy, generally covers you when you are hit while riding your bike, not just when you are in your car. We also work to identify hit-and-run drivers through camera footage, witness accounts, and vehicle debris left at the scene.
California Vehicle Code § 22517 prohibits opening a vehicle door on the side of moving traffic unless it is reasonably safe to do so. The person who opened the door, whether the driver or a passenger, can be held liable for a dooring crash. These cases turn on positioning and timing, so preserving scene evidence quickly matters.
Generally two years from the crash date (Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 335.1). If a dangerous road condition contributed, a pothole, a defective trail crossing, missing signage, a written claim against the city, county, or Caltrans must be filed within six months (Gov. Code § 911.2). Talk to a lawyer well before either deadline.
Nothing up front. Scranton Law works on contingency: our fee comes out of the settlement or verdict, only if we win. We front the investigation costs, accident reconstruction, and expert fees. If we don’t win, you owe us nothing. The consultation is free, and we answer 24/7 at 1-800-707-0707.
Don’t let an adjuster turn a driver’s negligence into your fault. Get a free case evaluation from a bicycle accident lawyer based right here in Concord. Free consultation. No fee unless we win. Hablamos español.
Attorney Advertising. Scranton Law Firm, 2450 Stanwell Dr, Concord, CA 94520. Responsible attorney: Christian Ryan Scranton, California State Bar #196959. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.