If, as the rider of a bicycle you are involved in an accident where there is a reasonable amount of property damage incurred or alternatively an injury is caused to anyone involved in the accident then at the very least you need to report the accident to the Police.

Often, particularly in serious motor vehicle accidents, Police attend the scene of the accident. When they do, their attendance is sufficient for you to assume that motor vehicle accident has been reported. When they do not attend at the accident then it is your obligation to report the accident to a local Police Station.

You should always exchange particulars with participants to an accident. For example names, addresses, phone numbers, vehicle registration numbers and drivers licence details.

If you have suffered injuries in an accident then you should also contact Allianz, the Compulsory Third Party Insurer. If you phone their toll free number then they will arrange for a claim to be opened, a claim number to be supplied to you and an Accident Report Form to be sent to you. Notifying the Police and the Compulsory Third Party Insurer are the two immediate tasks that need to be done.

Thirdly you should seek professional legal advice about your motor vehicle accident rights and entitlements and how best to pursue a claim for compensation if available. Andersons Solicitors have a number of highly experienced solicitors who would be well able to provide you with an initial free appraisal of your claim. We have offices across metropolitan Adelaide and regional South Australia.

We are often asked whether if you are injured whilst riding to or from work, you are covered by WorkCover. Unfortunately you are not. Traditionally such claims were covered and were classed as "Journey Injuries". At that time it was felt that the journey to and from work was part of work.

Some years ago changes were made to the WorkCover legislation to deny coverage for such claims. If you are riding your bike in the course of your employment then that is a different issue and that is covered by the WorkCover legislation. This of course would obviously apply to riders working as couriers.

So, if you suffer injury because of some incident either riding to or from work then the only way in which you can bring a claim is if the accident was wholly or partially caused by the actions of another road user. Then you can lodge a claim under the Motor Accident Commission third party insurance scheme. We've referred to that earlier in this blog. As always, to get advice on your position in such a case you should call one of our experienced solicitors at Andersons Solicitors, for a free appraisal.

Many of our clients encounter significant financial difficulties after being injured in a bike accident on the road.

A family, for example, can lurch from financial security to financial stress very quickly if the sole breadwinner is unable to work for any period of time following injuries sustained in an accident.

Is there anything that can be done for those injured in road accidents to ease what is often a short term but significant financial difficulty?

The compulsory third party insurer, Allianz, is open to an approach for what is called an interim payment. That is, a payment usually of a smallish amount to ease a person's financial hardship while the totality of a claim is still being assessed or while they are unable to work. We have had several clients who have received a rolling series of interim payments which have covered them until they are able to resume work.

Allianz, in our view, does take an unnecessarily harsh view of applications for interim payments. They do however, require evidence of the financial hardship as a pre-requisite. It's similar to the application being means tested and that you need to establish that you do not have significant funds that you can fall back on and in addition, you are being pressed to make significant regular outgoings such as mortgage payments.

We know many of our clients have found this method of access to financial assistance most welcoming. We recommend it to many clients, particularly as it can remove a potentially difficult and stressful issue.

For more information in relation to the obtaining of an interim payment after your motor vehicle or bike accident get in touch with our writer today, Andersons Partner, Dion McCaffrie.

Please note, this Blog is posted in Adelaide, South Australia. It relates to South Australian legislation.