There’s some good news in the case of Andrew Berg, a South Side father who was struck and injured by a right-turning driver while bicycling in the 31st Street protected bike lane last May. After suing the driver and winning the case in arbitration, yesterday he received a settlement to cover his hospital bills, pain and suffering, and damage to his cycle.

At the time of the crash Berg was riding his “long-tail” cargo bike from his job at the University of Chicago to his home in McKinley Park in the rain, pedaling west in the 31st Street protected lane with a green light. Westbound driver Amy Kudlov made a right turn onto Indiana Avenue, striking him in a “mixing zone” just east of the intersection, where drivers are supposed to yield to bike traffic while merging across the bike lane. Berg was knocked to the pavement suffering abrasions to the right side of his body, including his elbow, knee, and ankle. He sustained permanent scarring on his elbow.

Although visibility was poor, Berg says he had two bright lights on in the front of his bike and three in the back, so he should have been easy to spot, but responding police officers didn’t ticket Kudlov.

The driver gave the cyclist her name and telephone number and promised to send him her insurance info that evening. But Berg says Kudlov never responded to repeated calls and text messages, so he filed a small claims case against her, which eventually got moved to an arbitration hearing at the request of the driver’s attorney.

According to Berg, he had initially had trouble finding legal representation because there wasn’t the potential for a large settlement. But he says that after Streetsblog Chicago ran a post about the crash, he sent the piece to the bike-focused firm Keating Law Offices (a Streetsblog sponsor), and the firm agreed to take on the case. “They said they didn’t want to leave a cyclist behind and were trying to get justice,” he says. “I’m thankful to everyone in the bike community and the attorneys for supporting me.”

Full Article on Chicago Streetsblog:

http://chi.streetsblog.org/2017/03/03/justice-for-south-side-dad-wh...