The California Office of Traffic and Safety has just released statistics concerning cities with the most bike accidents. According to the report, San Luis Obispo is seventh worst in the state for bicyclist injuries and deaths per 1,000 residents when compared with 262 cities with populations over 25,000.

Further, when comparison to California towns of generally the same population San Luis Obispo ranks either first or second as the most dangerous city for each year since 2008. A representative of the San Luis Obispo County Bicycle Coalition notes, “It’s a call to action for decision-makers to build bike paths faster,” “We want people to be able to ride on safe streets with low traffic volume and speed. We want people to feel safe riding their bikes.” In fact the number of bike injuries in San Luis Obispo is on par with cities twice its size or larger, such as El Cajon, Ventura, Davis, Bakersfield, and Visalia.

If you have sustained injuries in a bicycle accident in any city throughout California, it is critical to contact a dedicated California bike accident attorney right away.

A wide range of personal injuries may occur in bicycle accidents. Typical injuries include broken bones, brain injuries, road rash and even wrongful death.

The exact reasons behind San Luis Obispo’s high accident rate are unknown, but many point simply to the fact that the city’s bike-friendliness leads to many accidents.

“More bicycle volumes make for higher collisions”. Further unlike Davis, which is also a bike friendly town, San Louis Obispo is older and has unsafe intersections originally only designed for cars.

Interestingly – when trying to figure out who is at fault for bike accident, bike riders and car drivers are equally to blame notes a representative from the bike coalition. “Year over year, you see the numbers [of who’s at fault] are generally balanced. On a national level, that’s also the case.”

The top three causes for bicycle accidents in San Luis Obispo include:

• drivers turning left in front of cyclist;
• cyclists losing control of their bike
• drivers turning right in front of cyclist