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Chicago is not chargeable for bicyclist injured…
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Chicago is not chargeable for bicyclist injured by pothole on highway that wasn’t designated bike route, courtroom guidelines
January 2, 2024, 3:37 pm CST
A bicyclist who wasn’t on a chosen bicycle route when he was injured by a pothole can’t get well from town of Chicago, regardless that there was a Divvy bicycle rental station close by, the Illinois Supreme Court docket dominated final month. Picture from Shutterstock.
A bicyclist who wasn’t on a chosen bicycle route when he was injured by a pothole can’t get well from town of Chicago, regardless that there was a Divvy bicycle rental station close by, the Illinois Supreme Court docket dominated final month.
The state supreme courtroom dominated towards bicyclist Clark Alave, who stated he was thrown from his bicycle after hanging the pothole in 2019, fracturing his enamel, injuring his hip and shoulder, and inflicting facial cuts and scars.
The Chicago Solar-Instances, the Cook dinner County File and Capitol Information Illinois through WTTW have protection.
The Illinois Supreme Court docket interpreted the Illinois Tort Immunity Act, which stated cities have an obligation to take care of their property in a fairly secure situation to be used by folks “meant and permitted” to make use of the property.
Chicago permits bicyclists to make use of any roadway that motorists use, however that doesn’t imply that bicyclists are meant to make use of all these roadways, the Illinois Supreme Court docket stated in its Dec. 14 opinion.
In Alave’s case, he was driving on a highway and not using a designated bike lane and signage, indicating that town didn’t intend him to be utilizing the highway, the state supreme courtroom stated.
The presence of a Divvy station about 100 toes away solely establishes that town permitted bicycling on the highway—not that it meant it, the state supreme courtroom stated. The Illinois Supreme Court docket famous that metropolis code permits bicyclists to journey on the sidewalk to entry the closest bicycle lane; on this case, the closest bicycle lane was one block away, town stated.
Michael S. Keating, who filed an amicus transient on behalf of the advocacy nonprofit Trip Illinois, stated in an announcement the Illinois Supreme Court docket’s resolution affirmed “harsh precedent” that distinguished between permitted and meant customers of roads, in keeping with the Cook dinner County File.
“This holding merely doesn’t mirror that large surge in bicycling that has occurred in Chicago, the suburbs and all through the remainder of Illinois,” Keating stated. “On that truth alone I believe the Illinois Supreme Court docket ought to have clarified extra particularly what ‘meant’ means past simply the presence of motorcycle lanes, a motorbike map or indicators.”
Keating did, nonetheless, reward the Illinois Supreme Court docket for a Nov. 30 resolution holding that an uninsured motorist coverage should cowl a policyholder’s son who was injured by a hit-and-run driver whereas driving his bicycle.
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