Even if you didn’t actually collide with the car that was at fault, you can pursue a damages claim against the driver that forced the actions resulting in your injuries. If the driver of a motor vehicle moved into your path, cut you off in a turn, or took some other action that caused you to try and evade his vehicle, resulting in you suffering injuries through a collision with a stationary object or some other means, that driver was negligent, and you can pursue recovery of damages.
First, though, you need to establish who that driver was, which can be difficult if the driver doesn’t stop. However, if you can get information on the driver, through witnesses, you getting the driver’s license plate information, or other means, then you can pursue a damages claim against that driver just as you could had you collided with that driver’s vehicle because of that driver’s negligence.
I was in an accident while using a bike-share bicycle—can I recover damages from the bike share company? That depends upon the accident and what caused it. Accidents on a bike-share vehicle really are no different than accidents in a rental car. If the accident is because of another driver’s negligence, your claim is against the other driver. If the accident is a result of a manufacturing defect, then the action is against the manufacturer or the maker of the failed part (or both, depending), but still not against the rental company.
In general, the bike-share company could only be found liable for an accident caused by their failure to properly maintain the bicycle. Defective parts, manufacturing failures, and other flaws or faults are not the responsibility of the bike-share rental company.
If a manufacturing or part defect was so obvious that the bike-share company should have noticed it, then you could have a claim against the bike-share company. On the other hand, they could argue that you also should have noticed such an obvious defect and thus assumed the risk.
In general, you will have an uphill battle pursuing an accident claim against a bike-share company unless you are claiming that they negligently failed to properly maintain the bicycle, or that they failed to properly repair the bicycle following a previous accident.
Even then, if the bike-share company farms out its maintenance and repair activities to independent contractors, you still might be thwarted in a liability claim against the bike-share company itself. You likely would be forced to pursue a claim against the independent contractor responsible for the repair or maintenance of the particular bicycle you used when you had your accident.
