You’re descending the Central Park loop in New York City on a new $15,000 bike when an off-leash dog darts into your line.
You hit the dog, you hit the pavement, and the owner rushes over apologizing while a police officer takes notes.
Everyone agrees it wasn’t your fault. That’s the moment a lot of riders skip the steps that protect them later.
What to do after a bike crash that wasn’t your fault is mostly a list of small moves done in the right order.
The first hour, the first week and the first month each have a job. Then comes who pays.
This is general information for riders in the US, with New York as the worked example. It isn’t legal advice, and the rules change from state to state.
Step 1: Check Yourself Before You Check the Bike
You’ll want to hop up, dust off, and check the frame. Don’t. Adrenaline is a lousy judge of what just happened to your body.
It masks pain, makes you feel fine when you’re not, and pushes you to act before you think. Get off the road first.
If anyone is hurt, you included, call 911 (or your local emergency number) and let the ambulance crew do the assessment.
The bike can wait. The paperwork, though, has a clock on it.
Step 2: Get a Police Report, Even If They Say Sorry
Everyone’s apologizing. That’s nice, but stories change. Witnesses go home.
The driver who swore they didn’t see you gets on the phone with an adjuster and suddenly remembers you swerved. Get it on paper while everyone agrees on what happened.
That’s the whole reason to call the police even when the other person admits fault at the scene. When the officers arrive, collect the basics yourself. Name, phone number, address, insurance details.
For a dog crash, get the owner’s name and address too. Ask witnesses for their numbers before they drift off.
Report dog crashes to animal control as well, just as you would if a dog chases you.
Stick to what happened and leave the question of fault for later.
After a car crash in New York City, you can request the collision report at the precinct within 30 days or pull it from the NYPD Collision Report Retrieval Portal online. After 30 days, the request goes to the DMV.
Step 3: Document Everything Before It Disappears
Street sweepers, rain, and the next hundred riders will erase the scene faster than you think. Photograph everything before it changes.
Take shots from several angles. Show where the bike ended up, where the car stopped, what the traffic lights were doing.
Photograph your injuries every day for several days. Bruises that show up later tell a story the scene photos can’t.
Keep the bike, helmet, shoes, gloves and torn kit exactly as they are. Do not wash anything, fix anything, or throw anything out. It’s all evidence.
If you run a camera, save the clip before it loops over itself. A voice memo in the first five minutes catches details your brain will fuzz over. Use the same camera and voice memo routine to handle driver road rage.
Step 4: See a Doctor Even If You Feel Fine
You feel fine at the scene. Concussion symptoms are sneaky.
Some show up hours or days later. Watch for a headache that worsens, weakness or numbness, repeated vomiting, slurred speech, one pupil larger than the other, confusion or agitation, passing out, or being impossible to wake.
Those are among the danger signs the CDC lists, and they mean 911 or an emergency room, not a nap.
⚠️ If you’re an older rider on blood thinners like warfarin, rivaroxaban, apixaban, clopidogrel, ticagrelor, or even aspirin, get checked right away after any blow to the head. No symptoms required. Blood thinners can raise the risk of bleeding in the brain.
The doctor visit does two jobs. It protects your health, and it creates a dated record of what hurt and when.
Insurers can use a gap between crash and treatment to argue the injury wasn’t from the crash. Don’t hand them that argument.
Once the doctor has seen you, getting back on the bike comes next.
Step 5: Don’t Ride the Bike Until It’s Inspected
Your bike might look perfectly fine. Don’t trust it.
Carbon can hide damage you can’t see, which is a big part of whether carbon is worth it at all.
Trek, for example, tells its carbon owners that a part that looks normal after a crash isn’t necessarily safe to ride, and to stop riding and take it to a shop. Ask the shop for a written inspection and a like-for-like replacement quote. You need that paper for the insurance claim.
Here’s what a thorough post-crash shop inspection looks like.
And don’t assume a manufacturer’s crash replacement discount will save you. Some programs, Canyon’s for instance, say they are not available for insurance claims. Get the full replacement number from the shop, not the discounted one.
Your helmet is single-impact. Replace it.
But do not throw it out yet. Keep the crashed one as evidence until the claim settles. A crash is one of the clear signs of when a helmet needs replacing.
Step 6: Figure Out Who Pays for Your Kind of Crash
The crash is over. The paperwork is just getting started.
This section is general information, not legal advice. Rules vary by state, and a local personal injury attorney can tell you what applies to your exact crash.
Outside the US? No-fault, homeowner’s cover and the deadlines below are US rules. Who pays and the time limits differ elsewhere, so check with your insurer or a local lawyer early.
Talk to your own insurer too.
Who pays comes down to two questions. Who covers your medical bills, and who covers the bike.
Liability coverage pays for damage the policyholder causes to someone else. No-fault, also called PIP (personal injury protection), pays medical bills and lost wages without anyone having to prove fault first.
Only about a dozen states have true no-fault laws, so the payer changes depending on where you are and what hit you. Check with your state insurance department.
If you’re in New York and a car hit you, you’re generally treated like a pedestrian and claim the striking car’s no-fault for medical bills and lost wages. Basic no-fault tops out at $50,000, and the DFS no-fault FAQ walks through the filing windows.
No-fault covers people, not bikes. Your bike comes out of the driver’s liability coverage, and its property-damage limit is the most that policy pays for things the driver damages. In New York, the minimum is only $10,000.
A $15,000 bike can easily blow past a minimum policy. That’s a conversation to have early, before you’ve taken a $10,000 check.
| Crash type | Who usually pays medical bills | Who usually pays for the bike | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Car hits you | The striking car’s no-fault in NY; varies elsewhere | Driver’s liability coverage | NY minimum is only $10,000 property damage |
| Opened car door | Likely the vehicle’s insurer; confirm | The vehicle’s liability coverage | NY bars opening a door unless it’s reasonably safe; other states vary |
| Off-leash dog | Owner’s homeowner’s or renter’s insurance | Same liability policy | Some insurers restrict certain breeds |
| Runner or pedestrian | Their homeowner’s or renter’s liability may pay | Same liability policy | Your own policy may not cover crash damage to the bike |
| Another rider | Their homeowner’s or renter’s liability may pay | Same liability policy | Ask early whether they have a policy |
| Hit-and-run | Your own or a household relative’s auto policy, else MVAIC in NY | Check your own policies | Report to authorities within 24 hours in NY |
Dooring has its own rules, and staying out of the door zone is the best prevention.
Why New York Dog Crashes Changed in 2025
In 2009, a cyclist on the Central Park loop hit a dog that an owner called across the road. The rider was badly hurt.
The rider lost the negligence case in 2015 because New York had an old rule: owners couldn’t be held liable for a domestic animal’s harm unless they knew, or should have known, the animal was vicious.
In April 2025, New York’s highest court overruled that rule’s bar on negligence claims in a decision called Flanders v Goodfellow. Now a rider can sue for ordinary negligence when an owner fails to use reasonable care.
You still have to prove the owner was careless. For a Central Park dog crash like the one above, that’s the difference between no negligence case at all and one you can try to prove.
Dog bites and other dog-related injuries are usually covered by the owner’s home or renter’s insurance, up to the liability limit. Those limits often run $100,000 to $300,000. New York had the highest average dog-claim cost in 2025 at $92,154, per the Insurance Information Institute.
Fault Rules Can Decide Everything
Most states use some form of comparative fault. If you were partly to blame, your payout usually shrinks by your share instead of disappearing.
But a handful of places, including Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama and DC, still use contributory negligence for most claims. There, any fault on your part, even a small share, can wipe out a claim entirely.
DC has a useful carve-out for cyclists and pedestrians. A vulnerable user hit by a motor vehicle isn’t barred unless their negligence was a proximate cause and greater than the combined negligence of those they’re suing.
New York changed its fault rule in 2026. For no-fault-covered injury lawsuits filed on or after May 26, 2026, you’re barred if you were more at fault than the other side. That’s a shift from pure comparative fault, and it likely applies to a cyclist hit by a car.
The DFS circular letter spells out the change. If you’re in New York and the insurer starts hinting you were partly to blame, that’s the point to talk to a New York attorney.
Step 7: Watch the Deadlines
Deadlines feel distant until you miss one by a day. Write these down for New York, and assume your state has its own version of each.
- No-fault written notice: 30 days from the crash to the insurer
- Medical bills: 45 days
- Lost-wage claims: 90 days
- Notice of claim (formal notice that you’re seeking money) against New York City, for example over a city vehicle: 90 days
- Statute of limitations (the deadline to file an injury lawsuit) in New York: 3 years
- Tennessee, as the cautionary tale: 1 year in most cases
If a city vehicle was involved, check that 90-day window first.
Step 8: Talk to Insurers Carefully and Know When to Call a Lawyer
Call your own insurer first and tell them the plain facts. The other party’s insurer will likely ask you for a recorded statement.
A recorded statement can be used against you later. Talk to your own insurer or a lawyer before you agree to one.
If the other insurer calls with a quick settlement before your doctor has finished with you, treat it as an opening bid.
And don’t post about the crash. Any upbeat post can become evidence you weren’t that hurt.
A lawyer earns their fee when the stakes get real. If you were injured, a motor vehicle was involved, fault is disputed, your bike is worth more than the other side’s coverage, or a government vehicle was in the mix, get a consultation.
Nothing on this page is legal advice. Every crash, policy and state is different, so for your own claim, a local personal injury attorney is the person to ask.
In this clip, a cycling lawyer explains what to do if a driver hits you.
Before your next ride, put your ID, insurance details and an emergency contact on your phone or in your saddle bag. When you’re ready to ride again, ease back in slowly.
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