E-Bike Accident Attorneys
Our personal injury attorneys represent e-bike riders injured by negligent motorists and defective bicycle components. In over thirty years of practice, we have represented thousands of clients and collected hundreds of millions of dollars on their behalf.
We understand the intricacies involved in pursuing electric bicycle injury and wrongful death cases. Our attorneys are avid bike riders. Our law firm was founded by a competitive cyclist and he put together an experienced team of bike injury lawyers that also know how to ride and fix bicycles themselves.
Attorneys on our bicycle injury legal team have recovered millions of dollars on behalf of injured bike riders, including some of the largest verdicts in U.S. history. Addressing the additional risks associated with e-bikes, we also have a track record of success in lawsuits involving explosions and fires, including doing pioneering work in battery explosion cases.
Injured Riding an E-Bike? Contact the Pritzker Hageman Bicycle Injury Legal Team
Call: 1-888-377-8900 | Text: 612-261-0856
Can I Sue if I Was Injured Riding an Electric Bicycle (E-Bike, or eBike)?
Injured in an E-Bike Crash
If you were injured by the negligent actions of a car, truck, or bus driver or by another bicycle or e-bike rider while riding an electric bike, you may be able to sue for damages. Damages may include medical costs, lost wages, loss of future earnings, disfigurement or disability, and pain and suffering. While many of the same factors apply to both standard bike and e-bike lawsuits, hiring an experienced e-bike accident lawyer with access to relevant experts and resources may be important in helping to prove your case.
E-Bike Wrongful Death Lawsuit
Like every case we handle, when a loved one is killed while out riding, our lawyers work to get answers, compensation, and justice for their families. Many of our attorneys are avid cyclists and are personally aware of the dangers of the road. A few years ago, we represented two different families, whose adult children were killed after being hit by trucks. In both cases, the truck drivers said they did not see the bike riders. This was the claim even in one case where our client’s daughter, a young woman, had been riding in a designated bike lane. Our attorneys successfully obtained compensation and justice for the terrible losses these families experienced.
Bike Accidents Due to Defective Electrical Bicycle Components
Any kind of bicycle component defect that leads to injury or death may be grounds to bring a lawsuit against the manufacturer or seller of the defective product. This is true for standard bikes as well as e-bikes. When you consider the additional battery, motor, and control components found on an e-bike, the chances for a serious, possibly fatal, component failure increase. Companies that can be sued in bicycle recall product liability cases may include the manufacturer of the defective part, the manufacturer of the bike, the wholesaler, the distributor, and in some cases, the retailer.
It is critical that everyone involved in producing an e-bike provides a safe, properly designed, and properly assembled product. Our law firm has been instrumental in getting defective products recalled and wrongdoers held accountable.
Uncontrolled Acceleration
While defects in standard unpowered bikes can lead to serious injury and death, e-bikes include a whole additional set of critical components like motors, wiring, throttles, sensors, and computers. Each new critical component must be designed to be safe and free from defects. The failure of any one of these e-bike components can lead to uncontrolled acceleration, loss of control, and terrible accidents.
Electric Bicycle Battery Fires
The lithium-based batteries on most e-bikes contain a tremendous amount of energy. Defects in the manufacturing of the battery or its controller components can lead to overheating and extremely hot dangerous fires. Lithium battery fires typically exceed 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit! The heat from these battery fires can not only cause horrific burns to a rider, but defective batteries can burst into flame and set houses, apartments, and other buildings on fire, causing injury and death to occupants. Our explosion and burn legal team attorneys have decades of experience successfully obtaining compensation for explosion and burn survivors and their families.
Failure to Warn or Instruct
The manufacturers of e-bikes and e-bike components have a duty to do their best to design products that reduce the dangers inherent in using the e-bike as much as possible. The manufacturer must guard against any remaining hazards if danger cannot be eliminated. If the danger, for some legitimate reason, cannot be eliminated or guarded against, the manufacturer must adequately warn and instruct users of the dangers inherent in the product. If an e-bike rider is injured due to some defect or danger in the bike or its components and the rider was not adequately warned about the danger ahead of time, the rider or their family may be able to sue. An experienced e-bike injury lawyer can investigate and help determine if a failure to warn or instruct lawsuit is likely to succeed.
Poor Maintenance of Rental E-Bikes Leading to Accidents
If a person rents an e-bike that has not been properly maintained and that lack of maintenance results in injury or death, the company renting the e-bike may be held liable.
An e-bike rental company may also have a duty to warn and instruct riders on the safe and proper operation of the e-bike they are renting. Failure to provide adequate safety and operating instructions prior to renting the bike may also be a reason to file a lawsuit in the event of an injury or death. Our attorneys can investigate and help determine if a lawsuit would be warranted.
Contact our e-bike accident attorneys today at 888-377-8900 (text: 612-261-0856) or fill out the form below:
Electric Bicycle and Scooter Accident and Injury News
E-bike Apartment Fire Kills Two Children in Queens, NY
Two children died when an e-bike caused a fire at an apartment building in Astoria, Queens. A father and his five children were inside the second-story apartment when the blaze broke out. The FDNY Chief of Department said it only took firefighters three minutes to arrive on the scene but because of how quickly a lithium-ion battery fire spreads, the victims “didn’t have a chance to get out of the building.” Fire officials say an extension cord was running from the upper apartment down to an after-market charger for the bike, which was being charged in the building’s vestibule.
8-Year Old girl Dies After E-Scooter Battery Fire in New York
Eight-year-old Stephanie Villa Torres died after an electric scooter battery fire on Saturday, September 17, 2022, in New York City. The NYPD says that first responders arrived at a home in Queens to find Stephanie unresponsive. Sadly, her death was confirmed at a local hospital. Her father and 18-year-old brother were treated for burn injuries and smoke inhalation.
Fire investigators say the fire was caused by a lithium battery from an e-scooter. This is the third death in about two years that has been linked to a scooter battery in New York. In August 2022, a woman and a five-year-old girl died in a fire caused by a scooter battery in Harlem. And in September 2021, a nine-year-old boy died in a fire linked to an e-scooter in Queens.
Fiido X E-Bikes Recalled Due to a Frame Defect
All Fiido X model electric bicycles have been recalled due to a defect that can lead to excessive frame fatigue and failure. At least one failure led to the frame breaking in half while the bike was being ridden. The Hong Kong manufactured Fiido X e-bike was first funded by an Indiegogo campaign in 2022.
New York City Fire Department Issues E-Bike Battery Fire Warning
“Fire investigators issued a warning for e-bike riders Monday following an alarming pattern of battery-sparked fires in New York City.
The FDNY put out photos from four fires the department says were started by lithium-ion batteries all in the past week.”
Specialized Electric Bikes Recalled for Potentially Faulty Lithium-Ion Batteries
“The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) recently announced the recall of about 2,500 Specialized 1st Generation Turbo Levo and Kenevo electric mountain bike battery packs. Some battery packs have been found to pose a risk of fire and burn hazards.”
A list of bikes affected by this recall can be found on Specialized’s website.