Gallagher & Lipshutz represents bicyclists hit by cars, trucks and rideshare drivers in Las Vegas, Henderson, North Las Vegas and Summerlin, and on the roads out to Red Rock and Lake Mead where the valley's riders train. A cyclist has a pedestrian's protection and a car's speed. The injuries are broken collarbones, wrists and hips, road rash that needs skin grafts, and head injuries that a helmet lessens but does not prevent, and the driver's insurance company treats the claim as if the cyclist had no business being on the road.
Our Las Vegas bicycle accident lawyers handle the claim from the first call: the police report, the driver's insurance, the cyclist's own coverage that most riders do not know they have, the cameras on the businesses near the crash, and the lawsuit when the insurance company will not pay what the case is worth. We handle it so you can heal.
Nevada gives a bicycle the same place on the road as a car. Under NRS 484B.763, a person riding a bicycle, an electric bicycle or an electric scooter on a roadway has all the rights and all the duties of the driver of a vehicle. A driver who turns across a cyclist or pulls out in front of one has broken the same rule as if the cyclist had been a car.
Drivers also owe cyclists duties that they do not owe other cars. NRS 484B.270 requires a driver passing a bicycle to move into the next lane to the left when there is one. When there is only one lane, the driver must pass with at least three feet between any part of the vehicle and the bicycle, and may cross the center line or a no-passing zone to do it safely. The same statute forbids driving, stopping or parking in a bike lane except to enter a driveway, avoid a collision or handle an emergency. It requires the driver to yield to a cyclist in the lane, to use due care to avoid hitting a cyclist, and to sound the horn when needed to prevent it. A driver who breaks those rules and hits a cyclist faces an added penalty in the traffic case. In the injury claim, the violation is evidence that the driver was at fault.
The cyclist's side of the rules is shorter. NRS 484B.777 requires a rider to stay as far to the right as is practicable. That rule does not apply when the rider is moving at the speed of traffic, preparing to turn left, or when the right side is unsafe because of parked cars, debris, or a lane too narrow for a bike and a car side by side. At night, NRS 484B.783 requires a white front light visible from 500 feet, a red rear reflector, and side reflectors or lights. Nevada has no helmet law for bicycles. The only helmet rules are local and apply to electric bikes and scooters: the City of Las Vegas code and the Clark County code both require a rider under 18 to wear a helmet on an electric bicycle or electric scooter. State law does not prohibit riding on the sidewalk, and the City of Las Vegas code does not either. The city requires a rider to use a bike path where one runs beside the road, to stop before crossing a sidewalk from a driveway or alley, and to yield to pedestrians.
Where Las Vegas Cyclists Get Hit
Most bike crashes in the valley happen at intersections and driveways, not in the open road. The right hook is the most common: a driver passes a cyclist and turns right across the bike lane at the next street or driveway. The left cross is next: a driver turning left looks for cars and does not see the bike. Then come the drivers who pull out of a parking lot into the bike lane, the car doors opened into riders downtown and near the Strip, and the rear-end crashes at night on roads with no shoulder.
The roads that produce the most calls are the long arterials with bike lanes and fast traffic: Charleston, Sahara, Eastern, Rainbow and Tropicana. Next are the Summerlin and Henderson neighborhood streets where drivers roll stop signs. Then the recreational routes: the Red Rock scenic loop and State Route 159, the River Mountains Loop Trail crossings in Henderson, and the roads to Lake Mead where cyclists share two lanes with trucks and tourists. A dozen bicyclists were killed in Clark County crashes in 2025, according to the Nevada Office of Traffic Safety. That number rose from the year before while every other kind of traffic death in the county fell.
The Insurance That Pays When You Were on a Bike
The driver's liability policy pays first, and Nevada requires only $25,000 per person under NRS 485.185. A cyclist thrown from a bike at 35 miles an hour can use that up before leaving the trauma center. So the second policy is the one that decides most bicycle cases, and it is the cyclist's own.
Your auto insurance covers you when you are on a bicycle. Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage on a personal auto policy protects the named insured and household family members as people, not as drivers, so it pays when a car hits you on a bike the same way it pays when a car hits your car. Nevada requires every insurer to offer that coverage in the same amount as your liability limits under NRS 690B.020, so a cyclist with a 100/300 policy has $100,000 of coverage for a hit-and-run or a driver with the state minimum. Medical payments coverage on the same policy pays the first bills regardless of fault. If you do not own a car, a policy in the household of a parent or spouse can still cover you as a resident relative. Our Las Vegas car accident lawyers page explains how these policies stack on top of the driver's.
When the driver was working, the employer's commercial policy is behind the driver, and when the driver was on a rideshare trip, a far larger policy applies. We identify each of those policies early, because a serious bicycle injury can exhaust a driver's minimum limits in the emergency room.
The Arguments Drivers Make Against Cyclists
Almost every insurer defends a bicycle claim by blaming the rider, and the arguments repeat. You were not wearing a helmet: Nevada has no helmet law for bicycles, the local rules reach only minors on e-bikes and scooters, and the absence of a helmet has nothing to do with who caused the crash, though the insurer will argue it made a head injury worse. You had no lights: that argument works only for a night crash, and only if the lights the statute requires were missing. You were riding on the sidewalk, or in the road when there was a bike lane, or too far from the curb: the statute above allows a rider to take the lane when the right side is unsafe, and the city's rule on bike paths applies only where a usable path runs beside the road. You came out of nowhere: the driver's phone records and the intersection cameras usually answer that one.
These arguments are about Nevada's comparative fault rule. Under NRS 41.141, your recovery is reduced by whatever share of fault a jury assigns to you, and it is barred only if your share is greater than the driver's. An insurer that convinces an adjuster you were 30 percent at fault pays 30 percent less, so the fault argument is where the money is, and answering it is most of the work.
Hit-and-Run and Uninsured Drivers
Drivers leave cyclists in the road more often than they leave other drivers, because a cyclist is often down and cannot follow. If the driver fled, our Las Vegas hit and run accident lawyers page explains how the car is traced through the police, the cameras and the paint on your bike. Your own uninsured motorist coverage pays the claim while that happens. If the driver stayed but has no insurance or only the state minimum, the same coverage applies. The driver's employer, the car's owner and any other policy in the driver's household are checked as well.
E-Bike and Electric Scooter Accidents
Nevada treats an electric bicycle as a bicycle. Under NRS 484B.017, an electric bicycle is a bike with working pedals and a motor of no more than 750 watts. Class 1 assists only while pedaling and stops at 20 miles an hour. Class 2 can run on the motor alone and stops assisting at 20. Class 3 assists while pedaling up to 28. Electric scooters fall under the same rules of the road, the same three-foot passing rule and the same rights and duties as a bicycle. A driver who hits an e-bike or a rental scooter owes the rider what he would owe a cyclist. The claim runs through the same policies: the driver's liability coverage, the rider's own auto policy for uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, and any employer or rideshare policy behind the driver.
Two things are different. E-bikes and scooters travel faster than drivers expect, so the "came out of nowhere" defense is more common, and the speed data from the bike or the scooter app answers it. A rented scooter also comes with a rental agreement that limits what the rental company owes. The claim against the driver who hit you is not affected by it. Local rules apply to e-bikes and scooters that do not apply to bicycles: both the City of Las Vegas and Clark County require riders under 18 to wear a helmet, and Clark County bars e-bikes and e-scooters from the sidewalks in the resort corridor.
Henderson Bicycle Accidents
Henderson has more bike lanes and trail miles than any other city in the valley. The crashes happen where the trails and lanes cross the arterials: the River Mountains Loop Trail crossings, the bike lanes on Green Valley Parkway, Horizon Ridge and Eastern, and the neighborhood streets of Green Valley, Anthem and Inspirada where drivers back out of driveways into the lane. The Henderson Police Department investigates a Henderson bicycle accident, and its traffic bureau handles the crash report and the body camera video; our Henderson car accident lawyers page covers the report process and the Henderson courts. The claim itself is the same Nevada claim described on this page. Our Henderson bicycle accident lawyers handle crashes throughout the city, from Lake Las Vegas to the Boulder Highway corridor.
How We Build a Bicycle Accident Case
We start with the report and the scene. The police report identifies the driver and the driver's insurer, and it often records the driver's first account, which is the one before the insurer got involved. We contact the businesses with cameras pointing to where the crash happened, because an intersection or driveway crash is usually on a storefront or doorbell camera that overwrites in days to weeks.
The bike and the gear are evidence. The bent fork, the scraped helmet and the torn clothing show the direction and force of the impact, and they are kept as they are until the case is over. We collect and store those for you. The driver's phone records and the car's event data are obtained in the litigation and answer the driver who says the cyclist appeared from nowhere. When the injuries are serious, we retain the experts who document what the injury will cost over a lifetime, not just what it has cost so far.
If the crash took a life, our Las Vegas wrongful death lawyers page explains who can bring the family's claim and what Nevada allows a family to recover.
What to Do After a Bicycle Crash in Las Vegas
A few things you do in the first hour and the first days protect the claim. We handle the rest.
Step 1: Get the Driver's Information and the Event Number
Get the driver's name, license plate and insurance card, and ask the officer for the event number before you leave. Our guide to getting a Las Vegas crash report explains how each agency releases it.
Step 2: Photograph the Scene, the Car, the Bike and Your Injuries
Take pictures of the intersection or driveway, the car and its damage, your bike where it landed, and your injuries as they are that day. If you cannot, ask someone with you to do it.
Step 3: Go to the Emergency Room if Anything Feels Wrong
A cyclist takes the whole force of the crash on the body, and the most serious injuries, a concussion, a fractured wrist, internal bleeding, often show up hours later. The ER is the safest place to find out, and its imaging and specialists are how a real injury gets diagnosed.
Step 4: Keep the Bike, the Helmet and the Clothes as They Are
Do not repair the bike, throw away the helmet or wash the clothing. Do not accept the driver's insurer's offer to pay for the bike; that check can come with a release that ends the injury claim.
Step 5: Call Gallagher & Lipshutz
Call (702) 381-3770 and we will get the report, identify the coverage and take over the calls from the insurers about your injury claim, starting the same day.
Does my car insurance cover me if I was hit while riding my bike?
Yes, in most policies. Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage and medical payments coverage on a personal auto policy follow the insured person, not the car, so they apply when a car hits you on a bicycle. A household member's policy can also cover you as a resident relative. We read the policy and tell you what it covers.
What if I was not wearing a helmet?
Nevada has no helmet law for bicycles, so an adult riding without one breaks no rule. The City of Las Vegas and Clark County require riders under 18 to wear a helmet on an electric bicycle or electric scooter, and that is the only helmet rule in the valley. The driver's insurer will argue that a helmet would have reduced a head injury, and that argument goes to the size of the claim, not to who caused the crash. It is answered with medical evidence about the injury you have.
Can I ride my bicycle on the sidewalk in Las Vegas?
Nevada law does not prohibit it, and the City of Las Vegas code does not either. The city requires a rider to use a bike path where one runs beside the road, to stop before crossing a sidewalk from a driveway or alley, and to yield to pedestrians. A driver who hits a cyclist on a sidewalk or in a crosswalk still owes the cyclist the duty of care the statute requires.
Is a bicycle a vehicle in Nevada?
A person riding a bicycle on a roadway has all the rights and all the duties of the driver of a vehicle under NRS 484B.763, with the exceptions the bicycle statutes spell out. That is why a driver who turns across a bike lane or pulls out in front of a cyclist is at fault the same way he would be if the cyclist had been a car.
How long do I have to file a bicycle accident claim in Nevada?
Two years from the crash under NRS 11.190. The cameras and the driver's records will not last that long, so the claim should start well before the deadline. Our Nevada injury claim deadlines page covers this in more detail.
What if the driver left the scene?
Report it to the police immediately, and your own uninsured motorist coverage pays the claim while the driver is traced through cameras, witnesses and the paint and parts left on your bike. Our Las Vegas hit and run accident lawyers page explains the process.
Are e-bike and scooter crashes handled the same way?
Yes. Nevada gives electric bicycles and electric scooters the same rights and duties as bicycles, drivers owe them the same three-foot passing distance and the same duty of care, and the same insurance policies apply.
What if the driver blames me?
Under NRS 41.141 your recovery is reduced by your share of fault and barred only if your share is greater than the driver's. Insurers raise fault in nearly every bicycle case, which is why the cameras, the driver's records and the scene evidence are gathered early.
If you were hit while riding a bicycle, an e-bike or a scooter in Las Vegas, Henderson or North Las Vegas, call (702) 381-3770 or contact Gallagher & Lipshutz for a free consultation. We will find out which policies cover you and what the driver owes, and we will handle it from there.
