Idaho Bicycle Accident Law

Who Pays After a Crash in Idaho

Idaho is an at-fault state. The driver who caused the crash owes you for your losses, and Idaho Code section 49-1229 requires every vehicle owner to carry liability insurance in the amounts fixed by section 49-117: $25,000 for one person's injuries, $50,000 for everyone hurt in the accident, and $15,000 for property damage. Neither the 2025 nor the 2026 legislative session changed those figures.

There is no injury threshold to clear before you bring a claim. Your injuries are paid from the driver's bodily injury limit and your bike and gear from the $15,000 property limit.

Idaho has no personal injury protection. The Idaho Department of Insurance lists bodily injury and property damage liability as the required coverages. Until the claim settles, your health plan carries the bills.

Two rules in Title 6 shape the final number. Section 6-1606 has the court reduce an award by amounts you already received from collateral sources, except benefits that carry subrogation rights. Section 6-1603 caps noneconomic damages such as pain and suffering. The cap started at $250,000 and moves each July 1 with the state's average wage; the Idaho Industrial Commission puts it at $538,425.04 from July 1, 2026. Willful or reckless misconduct is outside the cap.

Fault and How It Reduces a Claim

Section 6-801 lets you recover only if your negligence was "not as great as" the negligence of the person you are suing, and it reduces the award by your percentage. A rider found 49% responsible for a $100,000 loss collects $51,000. At 50%, the same rider collects nothing.

Section 6-803 adds a twist when more than one party is at fault. Your share is compared with each defendant individually, so you recover only from a defendant whose share is larger than yours. Each of them then owes only its own proportionate share, because Idaho limited joint and several liability to parties acting in concert and to agents.

The percentages are built from the traffic code. Section 49-714 gives a cyclist all the rights and duties of a driver and adds a duty of due care. The rules most likely to be argued:

• Stop signs and red lights. Section 49-720 lets you slow, yield, and roll through a stop sign without stopping. At a steady red light you must stop and yield, then may proceed with caution. The duty to yield is the part an insurer will test.
• Lane position. Section 49-717 requires a rider slower than traffic to keep as close as practicable to the right edge, except when passing, preparing a left turn, or avoiding hazards, parked cars, or a substandard width lane.
• Lights. Section 49-723 requires a front light visible from 500 feet and a rear reflector between sunset and sunrise.

Drivers carry a duty of their own. Section 49-615 requires every driver to exercise due care to avoid colliding with any cyclist, whatever other provisions of the traffic code say.

Helmets are an open question. Idaho has no statewide bicycle helmet law, and the bicycle chapter of Title 49 says nothing about helmet evidence. Section 49-673 bars seat belt non-use from being considered as comparative negligence, but that rule is written for seat belts alone.

Hit-and-Run and Uninsured Drivers

Section 41-2502 requires every Idaho auto liability policy to include uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage unless a named insured rejected either or both in writing. The limits follow section 49-117: at least $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident. The statute covers bodily injury only, so it does not reach a wrecked bike.

The statute protects insureds who are legally entitled to recover from an uninsured driver and does not say you must be inside a vehicle. Who counts as covered away from the car is set by the policy form. Ask your insurer in writing whether the coverage follows you onto a bike.

For a driver who flees, the Idaho statute is silent. It sets no physical contact requirement and no reporting deadline, and section 41-2503 says the terms and conditions of the coverage are otherwise left to the policy. Read the hit-and-run clause before you need it, and report the crash at once, as section 49-1305 already requires for any accident with an injury.

Under section 18-8007, a driver who knows an accident caused an injury must stop, give a name, address, insurer, and registration number, and render reasonable assistance. Leaving is a felony.

Underinsured coverage comes in two forms, and the Department of Insurance requires a disclosure explaining them. Excess coverage pays above what the other driver's insurer paid. Offset coverage, also called difference in limits, is reduced by that payment, so a $25,000 offset limit adds nothing against a driver carrying the $25,000 minimum.

In a bike insurance policy, check for uninsured motorist coverage of its own and for crash damage cover that pays no matter who hit you.

Dooring and Passing Laws

Section 49-607 covers dooring in two parts. No person may open the door of a motor vehicle on a side available to moving traffic "unless and until it is reasonably safe to do so" and it can be done without interfering with other traffic. And no person may leave a door on the traffic side open longer than necessary to load or unload passengers. The wording binds passengers as well as drivers.

Passing law is thinner. Idaho sets no statewide passing distance in feet. Section 49-632 requires an overtaking driver to pass on the left "at a safe distance" and stay left until safely clear. Section 49-615 adds due care to avoid colliding with a cyclist, and an audible signal when necessary.

Without a number in the statute, a close pass in Idaho is proved with facts: where you were in the lane, how fast the driver was going, what a camera or a witness saw. The state code is the floor, so write down where the crash happened and check the city or county code for anything more specific.

E-bikes

Section 49-106 defines an electric-assisted bicycle as a bicycle with fully operable pedals and an electric motor of less than 750 watts. Class 1 assists only while you pedal and stops at 20 mph. Class 2 has a motor that can propel the bike on its own and stops assisting at 20 mph. Class 3 assists only while you pedal and stops at 28 mph. Section 49-727 requires a permanent label showing the class, top assisted speed, and motor wattage.

Section 49-726 exempts an e-bike and its rider from Idaho's financial responsibility, driver's license, title, registration, and license plate laws, and section 49-123 takes electric-assisted bicycles out of the definition of a motor vehicle. Under section 49-725 you have all the rights and duties of a bicycle rider. After a crash that means the same 50% bar and the same deadlines.

The legislature closed a gap in 2026. House Bill 500, effective July 1, 2026, wrote e-bike riders into section 49-615, the driver's duty of due care, and into section 49-714.

One wrinkle remains in section 49-720. The stop-sign rule names e-bikes. The red-light rule names only bicycles and human-powered vehicles, a gap an insurer could raise if you crossed on red.

No Idaho statute or Department of Insurance guidance says whether an auto policy's uninsured motorist coverage applies to you on an e-bike. Get your insurer's position in writing, and photograph the label: a motor of 750 watts or more falls outside the definition.

Deadlines

Idaho gives you two years to sue for injuries and three for the bike, but a claim against a governmental entity can be lost in 180 days.

1. At the scene

   Notify Police Immediately

   Section 49-1305 requires immediate notice, by the quickest means of communication, of any accident with an injury, a death, or more than $1,500 in damage to one person's property. Call the city police inside city limits, otherwise the county sheriff or the Idaho State Police.

2. 180 days

   Notice of Claim to a Governmental Entity

   A claim against the state or a political subdivision (a city bus, a county truck, a school district vehicle) falls under the Idaho Tort Claims Act. Sections 6-905 and 6-906 require a written claim within 180 days from the date the claim arose or reasonably should have been discovered. File it with the Secretary of State for a state claim, or with the clerk or secretary of the political subdivision for a local one. Section 6-907 lists the contents, including the amount claimed and your residence for the prior six months.

3. Two years

   Injury Lawsuit

   Section 5-219 gives you two years to sue for an injury to the person, counted from the day of the crash, and the same two years for a wrongful death claim. Section 6-911 sets the same two-year limit for a lawsuit against a governmental entity. For a minor, section 5-230 does not count the time before the age of majority, but it stops the clock for no more than six years.

4. Three years

   Bike Damage Lawsuit

   Section 5-218 allows three years for an action for injuring goods or chattels, which covers the bike and gear.

Section 6-908 is blunt: no claim or action is allowed against a governmental entity unless the notice was filed in time. The entity then has 90 days to answer under section 6-909, and silence counts as a denial. Section 6-926 caps what a governmental entity pays at $500,000 for one occurrence, however many people were hurt, unless it bought insurance above that figure. Section 6-906A gives a minor longer to file the notice.

For a dispute over the bike alone, the small claims department of the magistrate division hears claims up to $15,000, a limit in effect since July 1, 2026. It cannot award damages for pain or suffering.

Evidence to Preserve

With a 50% bar, evidence in Idaho has one job: keeping your percentage below the driver's.

• The police report number from the scene. Section 49-1306 has the investigating officer file a written report with the state within 24 hours of finishing the investigation, and those reports are not confidential.
• Proof that you yielded. If you rolled a stop sign or crossed on red under section 49-720, camera footage, a bike computer file, or a witness shows you slowed and the way was clear.
• Your front light and rear reflector, photographed on the bike, if the crash happened after sunset.
• The e-bike label showing class, top assisted speed, and wattage.
• The driver's details. Section 18-8007 requires name, address, insurer, and registration number after an injury accident.
• Who owns the vehicle and the road. A city, county, or school district on the other side starts the 180-day clock.
• Your auto policy's declarations page and its hit-and-run clause, showing that uninsured motorist coverage was not rejected and what the policy demands.
• The damaged bike, unrepaired, with receipts for the bike and gear.

Coverage for Idaho Riders

Idaho law leaves a rider exposed in four places: a driver carrying the $25,000 minimum, a hit-and-run clause you have never read, no personal injury protection to pay medical bills while the claim is pending, and uninsured motorist coverage that by statute pays for injuries but not for the bike. The Velosurance policy offers the coverages discussed above.

Uninsured Motorist covers losses beyond medical bills, such as lost wages, when the at-fault driver cannot pay.

Medical Payments covers the deductible and out-of-pocket costs your health plan leaves, regardless of the driver's insurance. Choose a limit close to your plan's out-of-pocket deductible.

Liability is the coverage for the day the percentages run against you. With a 50% bar, a rider whose share of fault is the larger one collects nothing and can be made to pay the driver's losses. Liability covers injury to other people and damage to their property, including the cost of defending a covered lawsuit, with limits from $25,000 to $500,000.

Crash damage to the bike is part of the policy itself: stated value with no depreciation, subject to the deductible, whoever was at fault. Class 1, Class 2, and Class 3 e-bikes are covered like conventional bikes.

For any of these coverages to apply, it must be on the policy before the crash. Get a quote before the next ride, not after it.