Written and reviewed by Josh Kohanim, Esq., California Bar No. 328609 · Reviewed
What is different in Long Beach
We represent riders hit in Long Beach and parents of a child hurt on a bike here. For anything wider, start at our Long Beach personal injury lawyer page.
How often Long Beach riders are hit
| Category | Killed and injured | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Bicyclists, all ages | 213 | 2 of 15 |
| Bicyclists under 15 | 18 | 2 of 15 |
Rank 1 is the worst rate in the group. The Office of Traffic Safety compares Long Beach only against California's fourteen other largest cities, adjusting for a population of 460,545 and 3,673,130 daily vehicle miles. One caveat comes from the agency itself: "if a crash report is taken by the CHP on a road with shared jurisdiction, it does not count against the city." A rider hit on the Pacific Coast Highway, a state route through Long Beach, may not be in the 213.
The rules the driver broke
| Section | What it says | Why it matters here |
|---|---|---|
| Veh. Code 21200 | A cyclist has the rights and duties of a driver | A rider is traffic |
| Veh. Code 21202 | Ride near the right edge when slower than traffic, with four exceptions | The exceptions answer the usual defense |
| Veh. Code 21760 | No pass closer than three feet | A close pass violates the statute |
| Veh. Code 21717 | A driver turning across a bike lane must enter it first | Right hooks start with a driver who never merged |
| Veh. Code 22517 | No opening a door into traffic unless it is safe | The person who opened it is liable |
| Veh. Code 21801 | A left turning driver yields to approaching traffic | In a left cross, the rider was that traffic |
The sources: 21200, 21202, 21760, 21717, 22517 and 21801. Each one turns a driving choice into a negligence per se question, the rule that lets a jury presume negligence from a violation of a safety statute that caused the harm it was written to prevent. Our Los Angeles bicycle accident lawyer page works through all of them, and our post on the three foot law and dooring takes the two most common ones apart.
Why riding in the lane was legal
The first thing an insurer says about a Long Beach rider is that you were too far into the lane. Section 21202(a) does ask a cyclist moving slower than traffic to keep near the right edge, and then lists four situations where that duty does not apply: passing, preparing for a left turn, avoiding a hazard, and approaching a right turn. The third exception covers parked cars, opening doors, debris and a substandard width lane, which the statute defines as a lane too narrow for a bicycle and a vehicle to travel safely side by side.
Put that next to Anaheim Street or Atlantic Avenue with a row of parked cars along the curb. A driver has to leave three feet under section 21760. A lane that cannot hold a car, three feet of air and a rider is substandard by the statute's own words, and the rider who moved left was doing what the code allows. The same four exceptions apply to a marked bike lane under section 21208, so leaving the lane around a delivery truck gives up nothing. Our guide on bike lane and right hook accidents covers that geometry.
Your child and the helmet argument
Long Beach recorded 18 cyclists under 15 killed or injured in 2023. Vehicle Code 21212 requires a properly fitted helmet for a rider under 18. For an adult, riding without one breaks no law and says nothing about why a driver turned across your path. Even against a child, a helmet argument reaches only injuries a helmet would have prevented, which keeps it away from a broken pelvis and a lost year of school.
When the road caused the crash
The hazard may be a sunken trench patch, a storm grate with slots running the way you ride, or a bike lane that ends into a right turn pocket. When the hazard is the road, the defendant is a public entity. Government Code 835 makes an entity liable for a dangerous condition of public property, defined in section 830(a), but only where an employee created the condition or the entity had notice in time to fix it. Section 835.2 puts the city's own inspection and complaint records in evidence.
Two ownership questions decide who you claim against in Long Beach. City streets belong to the city. The Pacific Coast Highway is a state route, which points at Caltrans. Either way the written claim is due in six months under Government Code 911.2, not two years, and the rest of the clocks are in our table of California injury deadlines.
Your hospital and your courthouse
A rider brought in by ambulance goes to MemorialCare Long Beach Medical Center, 2801 Atlantic Avenue, Level II adult and Level II pediatric, or to Dignity Health St. Mary Medical Center, 1050 Linden Avenue, also Level II. Both are on the California EMS Authority list updated October 22, 2025, and an injured child is usually treated at the Miller Children's campus on the MemorialCare site. The lawsuit is filed at the Governor George Deukmejian Courthouse, 275 Magnolia Avenue, because Local Rule 2.3 sends injury cases to the district where the crash happened.
Situations that change your Long Beach claim
- The driver left. Your own uninsured motorist coverage responds when you are hit while riding, and Insurance Code 11580.2 sets the conditions for an unidentified vehicle, including a report within 24 hours and a sworn statement within 30 days.
- You do not own a car. Proposition 213 does not reach you. Civil Code 3333.4 takes pain and suffering from an uninsured owner or operator of a motor vehicle, and a bicycle is not one.
- You were on an electric bicycle. Vehicle Code 312.5 sorts e-bikes into three classes, section 21213 adds a helmet at every age on a Class 3 and bars anyone under 16 from operating one, and section 24016(b) confirms an electric bicycle is not a motor vehicle.
- It happened on the Pacific Coast Highway. A state route through the city usually means a California Highway Patrol report from the South Los Angeles Area office at 19700 Hamilton Avenue in Torrance, and a different agency to claim against if the pavement was the problem.
- You were walking, not riding. The right of way statutes are different: see our Long Beach pedestrian accident lawyer page, or the Long Beach car accident lawyer page if you were in a vehicle.
What to do after a bicycle crash
You were entitled to the road, and the arguments that arrive first have statutory answers. Fault comes down to which section the driver broke, whether the lane was wide enough to share, and what the camera on the corner recorded before it overwrote itself. If the pavement caused it, you have six months rather than two years, and that is the deadline people lose.
Our headquarters are in Tarzana, and you do not have to make the drive. Send us the intersection, the date and any photograph of the bike before it was repaired. Damage on a frame is evidence, and it is usually thrown away before anyone asks for it.
Tell us where you were riding and what the driver said. We will tell you which statute answers it and which deadline is running.