Mississippi Bicycle Accident Law

Who Pays After a Crash in Mississippi

Mississippi is an at-fault state. The driver who caused the crash owes you for your losses, and section 63-15-3 of the Mississippi Code sets what that driver must be able to pay: $25,000 for one person's injury or death, $50,000 for everyone hurt in one accident, and $25,000 for property. The Mississippi Insurance Department dates those figures to January 1, 2006, and says they may not be sufficient. Senate Bill 2406, filed in 2025, would have doubled all three. It died in committee.

There is no personal injury protection system here and no injury threshold to clear before you bring a claim. Your injuries are claimed against the driver's bodily injury limit, your bike and gear against the $25,000 property limit.

The first-party coverage Mississippi auto policies can carry is medical payments coverage, which the Insurance Department describes as paying the expenses of people injured in an accident regardless of fault. It is optional. The Department's guide does not say whether it applies to a crash on a bicycle, so if your household has an auto policy, ask the insurer in writing.

If no one in your household has an auto policy, the list is short: the driver's liability coverage, your health plan, and whatever you carry on the bike.

Fault and How It Reduces a Claim

Mississippi uses pure comparative negligence. Under section 11-7-15, the fact that the injured person was "guilty of contributory negligence shall not bar a recovery." The jury reduces the damages in proportion to the negligence attributable to you. There is no cutoff. A rider found 30% responsible for a $100,000 loss collects $70,000. A rider found 80% responsible still collects $20,000.

The same rule covers property, so the bike is reduced by the same percentage as the injury claim.

Under section 85-5-7, when more than one person caused the crash, liability is several only: each pays the percentage assigned to it and no more. A share assigned to someone who is immune is not shifted to the others.

The percentages are argued from the traffic code. Section 63-3-1303 gives a rider on a roadway all the rights and all the duties of a driver, and two rules come up most:

• Lane position. Section 63-3-1307 tells a rider moving slower than traffic to keep as close as practicable to the right edge. The exceptions are wide: passing, left turns, hazards, and a lane too narrow for a bicycle and a vehicle to travel safely side by side. No more than two abreast.
• Lights. Section 63-7-13 requires a lighted white lamp on the front at night and a red reflector or lamp on the rear, each visible from 500 feet.

Helmets are an open question. Mississippi has no statewide bicycle helmet requirement, and no statute or appellate decision was found on whether riding without one can be used to cut your damages.

Hit-and-Run and Uninsured Drivers

Section 83-11-101 puts uninsured motorist coverage in every Mississippi auto liability policy unless the named insured rejected it in writing, on a form approved by the Department of Insurance. The limits cannot be lower than $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident. Bills to remove the rejection option died in committee in 2025 and 2026, so check the declarations page.

Mississippi's definition of who is covered helps a cyclist. Section 83-11-103 defines the insured as the named insured, a spouse, and relatives living in the same household "while in a motor vehicle or otherwise." Those last two words are the statutory basis for a claim when you are hit on a bike. Confirm with your insurer how it applies them.

For a driver who flees and is never identified, the same section requires that "actual physical contact must have occurred" between the unknown vehicle and "the person or property of the insured." A mirror that clips your handlebar meets that wording. A car that forces you into a ditch without touching you or the bike does not.

Mississippi also treats an underinsured driver as uninsured, but only when that driver's liability limits are lower than your uninsured motorist limits. The Mississippi Supreme Court restated in its 2021 Viking Insurance decision that the coverage on each vehicle in a policy can be stacked, and that separate policies can be added together. Two cars insured at $25,000 each give you $50,000 to compare against a driver carrying the $25,000 minimum. One car at $25,000 gives you nothing extra against that driver. Section 83-11-102 lets a policyholder with four or more vehicles sign that right away for a single limit.

The statute sets no deadline for reporting a hit-and-run to your insurer, which leaves the deadline to the policy. Call police from the scene and notify the insurer the same day. In a bike insurance policy, check for uninsured motorist coverage of its own.

Dooring and Passing Laws

Mississippi's cycling rules sit in the John Paul Frerer Bicycle Safety Act, sections 63-3-1301 through 63-3-1313 of the Code. Under section 63-3-1309, a motorist overtaking a bicyclist must leave a safe distance of not less than three feet and hold that distance until safely past.

The same section answers two arguments drivers make. A driver may cross into a no-passing zone to get around a bicycle, but only when it is safe. And a driver who has just passed you may not turn right at an intersection or into a driveway unless the turn can be made with reasonable safety.

Section 63-3-1305 protects marked bike lanes: a driver may not block one to oncoming bicycle traffic and must yield to a rider in the lane before entering or crossing it.

Dooring is covered by an older rule that applies to all traffic. Section 63-3-911 says no person shall open any door on a motor vehicle unless it is reasonably safe and can be done without interfering with the movement of other traffic, and no one may leave a door open on the traffic side longer than necessary to load or unload passengers.

E-bikes

Mississippi adopted the three-class system in House Bill 1195, in force since July 1, 2021. Section 63-3-103 defines an electric bicycle as a bike with fully operable pedals, a saddle or seat, and an electric motor of less than 750 watts. Class 1 assists only while you pedal and stops assisting at 20 mph. Class 2 has a motor that can propel the bike on its own, up to 20 mph. Class 3 assists only while you pedal, up to 28 mph, and must have a speedometer.

Section 63-3-1315 says an electric bicycle "is not a motor vehicle" and exempts it from the financial responsibility, driver's license, registration, title, and license plate laws. After a crash you stand where any cyclist stands.

Two limits apply. No one under 16 may operate a Class 3. And no one may modify the bike's speed capability without replacing the class label. The label, required since January 1, 2022, shows the class, top assisted speed, and motor wattage. A motor of 750 watts or more puts the machine outside the definition and outside those exemptions.

There is no statewide helmet requirement for any class.

One question is unanswered. The "not a motor vehicle" language suggests an e-bike rider is treated like any cyclist under an auto policy's uninsured motorist coverage, but no statute, agency guidance, or appellate decision says so. Get your insurer's position in writing, and check that a bike insurance policy covers your e-bike's class.

Deadlines

Mississippi gives you three years to sue a driver, but a claim against a government body runs on a one-year clock with a notice step built in.

1. At the scene

   Notify Police Immediately

   Section 63-3-411 requires the driver of a vehicle in a collision with an injury, a death, or $500 or more in property damage to give notice immediately, by the quickest means of communication: to city police inside a municipality, to the sheriff or the highway patrol outside one. A rider has the duties of a driver, so make the call yourself.

2. One year

   Claim Against a Governmental Entity

   A claim against the state, a county, a city, or another public body falls under the Mississippi Tort Claims Act. Section 11-46-11 requires a written notice of claim at least 90 days before suit, delivered in person or by registered or certified mail: to the chancery clerk for a county, the city clerk for a municipality, and the chief executive officer for any other entity. It must state the facts, the injury, the time and place, everyone known to be involved, the money sought, and your address then and now. Suit must be filed within one year of the incident. Notice delivered inside that year pauses the clock for 95 days, and once the claim is denied or the pause ends you have 90 more days to file.

3. Three years

   Injury and Bike Damage Lawsuit

   Section 15-1-49 gives you three years from the day the claim accrues to sue for personal injury, and the same three years for damage to the bike. For a rider who is a minor, section 15-1-59 saves the claim until the disability of infancy is removed; section 1-3-27 defines a minor as a person under 21.

Missing the Tort Claims Act deadline is an absolute bar, however much of the three years remains. Recovery is capped as well: section 11-46-15 limits all claims from one occurrence to $500,000 and allows no punitive damages. One 2026 change helps claimants. Senate Bill 2360, in force since July 1, 2026, tells the Tort Claims Board to publish an online registry of governmental entities and their chief executive officers, and pauses the one-year period while a registry entry is wrong.

For a dispute over the bike alone, justice court hears claims up to $3,500.

Evidence to Preserve

With no percentage bar, every point of fault in Mississippi is worth money to one side or the other.

• The crash report number and the agency that took it: city police inside a municipality, the sheriff or the Mississippi Highway Patrol outside one.
• The driver's insurance card. Section 63-3-405 obliges a driver to give only name, address, and registration number, so ask for the card Mississippi drivers must carry and photograph it.
• Passing distance. Camera footage, witness names, and photos of where you were struck go to the three-foot rule in section 63-3-1309.
• Every auto policy in your household, with declarations pages showing uninsured motorist limits and the number of vehicles, since coverage can be stacked.
• Who owned the vehicle. A city, county, or state vehicle moves you from three years to one.
• The damaged bike, unrepaired, with receipts for the bike and gear.

Coverage for Mississippi Riders

Mississippi law leaves a rider exposed in four places: a driver carrying the $25,000 minimum, a driver whose household rejected uninsured motorist coverage or who flees without making contact, medical costs with no personal injury protection behind them, and a fault percentage that can land on you. 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. A rider with no car has no auto policy to carry it on, and nothing to stack.

Medical Payments covers the deductible and out-of-pocket costs your health plan leaves, regardless of the driver's insurance. Mississippi auto policies are not required to include anything like it, so choose a limit close to your plan's out-of-pocket deductible.

Liability answers the other side of pure comparative negligence. Anyone you injure can recover from you for whatever share of a crash is yours. 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.

Each optional coverage must be on the policy before the crash. Get a quote before the next ride, not after it.