Virginia Bicycle Accident Law

Who Pays After a Crash in Virginia

Virginia is an at-fault state. The driver who caused the crash pays, and Code section 46.2-472 sets what that driver's policy must carry. For every policy effective on or after January 1, 2025, the minimums are $50,000 for one person's injuries, $100,000 for everyone hurt in the accident, and $25,000 for property damage. Policies that took effect earlier were written to $30,000, $60,000, and $20,000.

There is no personal injury protection system and no injury threshold to clear before you can sue. What Virginia has in place of PIP is optional. Under Code section 38.2-2201, an auto insurer must provide medical expense benefits when the policyholder asks for them and pays the premium: up to $2,000 per person, or another agreed limit, for medical and funeral expenses incurred within three years of the accident. A companion benefit replaces lost income up to $100 a week for up to a year.

The wording helps cyclists. The benefit reaches the named insured, and a spouse or relatives living in the household, when they are hurt "through being struck by a motor vehicle while not occupying a motor vehicle." A crash on your bike fits that sentence, but the benefit exists only if somebody bought it, so check the declarations page.

If nobody in your household has an auto policy with that benefit, it is not available to you. The striking driver's medical expense coverage protects people occupying that car, not the cyclist it hit.

Fault and How It Reduces a Claim

Virginia is a contributory negligence state. The rule comes from the courts, not the Code, and the Supreme Court of Virginia restated it in 2021 in AlBritton v. Commonwealth: contributory negligence, when proven, is an absolute bar to recovery on a simple negligence claim. If your own carelessness was a proximate cause of the crash, the award is zero.

The driver has to prove two things: that you were negligent, and that your negligence was a direct, contributing cause of the collision. In Rascher v. Friend, a 2010 case, a cyclist riding at about 19 mph glanced at his speedometer for up to a second just as a minivan turned left across his lane. The trial judge threw the case out. The Supreme Court reversed: a jury could find the glance reasonable, or find that he could not have avoided the minivan anyway.

Section 46.2-800 gives a cyclist the rights and duties of a driver, so the defense looks to the traffic code:

• Lane position. Section 46.2-905 requires a rider slower than traffic to keep as close as safely practicable to the right edge, with exceptions for passing, left turns, hazards, and lanes too narrow to share with another vehicle.
• Two abreast. Legal, but you must single up when a faster vehicle overtakes. The same section says failing to do so is not negligence per se in a civil case.
• Lights. Section 46.2-1015 requires a white headlight visible from 500 feet and a red rear reflector between sunset and sunrise, plus a red taillight on any road posted at 35 mph or more.

Helmets are different, as the e-bike section below explains.

Hit-and-Run and Uninsured Drivers

Code section 38.2-2206 makes uninsured motorist coverage part of every Virginia auto liability policy. The limits match the policy's liability limits unless a named insured chooses lower ones, never below the state minimums.

The statute defines the insured as the named insured and, while living in the same household, a spouse and relatives, "while in a motor vehicle or otherwise."

A motor vehicle is deemed uninsured if its owner or operator is unknown, and Virginia does not require physical contact. A car that forces you into a ditch without touching you still counts, on one condition: the accident must be reported promptly to your insurer or to a law-enforcement officer with jurisdiction in the county or city where it happened.

You sue the unknown driver as "John Doe" and serve your own insurer, which defends in Doe's name. If the driver is later identified, the John Doe filing pauses the limitation clock against that person, for up to three years from the day the John Doe action began.

Underinsured motorist coverage comes with the same limits and, by default, pays on top of the at-fault driver's liability coverage with no credit for it. A named insured can sign an election that reduces it by what the driver's insurer pays.

The endorsement must also include at least $20,000 for damage to "the property of the insured." Ask your insurer to confirm that it treats a bicycle as covered property.

Two things to check in a bike insurance policy: whether it offers uninsured motorist coverage of its own, for a household with no auto policy, and whether crash damage is covered no matter who hit you.

Dooring and Passing Laws

Virginia's dooring law is Code section 46.2-818.1. No operator may open the door of a parked motor vehicle on the side adjacent to moving traffic unless it is reasonably safe to do so. The fine is no more than $50, and the text speaks only of the operator, not passengers.

The passing law is stronger. Section 46.2-839 requires a driver overtaking a bicycle or an electric power-assisted bicycle to pass at a reasonable speed at least three feet to the left. If the lane is not wide enough to give three feet while sharing it with you, the overtaking vehicle must change lanes.

Two criminal provisions sit behind those rules. Under section 46.2-816.1, careless or distracted driving that is the proximate cause of serious bodily injury to, or the death of, a vulnerable road user lawfully on the highway is a Class 1 misdemeanor. The definition includes cyclists and e-bike riders. Section 46.2-924, last amended in 2025, applies the same penalty to a driver who fails to stop for a vulnerable road user lawfully crossing a highway and causes serious bodily injury or death.

E-bikes

Code section 46.2-100 defines an electric power-assisted bicycle as a vehicle with pedals, a seat, no more than three wheels, and an electric motor with an input of no more than 750 watts. Class one assists only while you pedal and stops assisting at 20 mph. Class two has a motor that can propel the bike by itself, up to 20 mph. Class three assists only while you pedal and stops at 28 mph.

Section 46.2-904.1 gives an e-bike rider all the rights and duties of a cyclist and exempts the bike from driver's license, registration, title, license plate, and financial responsibility requirements.

Class three carries extra rules. A rider under 14 may operate one only under the immediate supervision of someone at least 18, under section 46.2-908.1. And every operator and passenger must wear a helmet.

That helmet rule comes with a shield. Section 46.2-904.1 says failure to wear one is not negligence, cannot be considered in mitigation of damages, is not admissible in evidence, and cannot be mentioned by counsel. Section 46.2-906.1 says the same about local ordinances, which a county, city, or town may adopt for riders 14 and younger. Neither statute addresses an adult on a conventional bike, who has no helmet law to break.

Photograph the label, which must show class, top assisted speed, and motor wattage. A machine over 750 watts falls outside the definition.

One question is open: no statute or appellate opinion read for this guide says whether auto coverages treat an e-bike rider as a cyclist. Get your insurer's position in writing.

Deadlines

Virginia gives you two years to sue for injuries and five for the bike, but a claim against a county, city, or town can be lost in six months.

1. At the scene

   Notify Law Enforcement Immediately

   Section 46.2-371 requires the driver of any vehicle in an accident that injures or kills someone to give immediate notice to a law-enforcement officer. Call yourself as well.

2. Promptly

   Report a No-Contact Hit-and-Run

   If an unknown driver caused the crash without touching you, section 38.2-2206 conditions the uninsured motorist claim on a prompt report to your insurer or to a law-enforcement officer in the county or city where it happened.

3. Six months

   Notice to a County, City, or Town

   Section 15.2-209 bars a negligence claim against a county, city, or town unless a written statement of the nature of the claim, with the time and place of the injury, is filed within six months after the claim accrues. File it with the county, city, or town attorney, or with the chief executive or mayor. Proving receipt is your burden, so get a signed, dated receipt.

4. One year

   Notice to the Commonwealth

   Under the Virginia Tort Claims Act, section 8.01-195.6, a claim against the Commonwealth or a transportation district needs a written statement within one year, naming the time, the place, and the agency alleged to be liable. File it with the Director of the Division of Risk Management or the Attorney General, or with the Commissioner of Highways if the agency is the Department of Transportation.

5. Two years

   Injury Lawsuit

   Section 8.01-243 gives you two years after the claim accrues to sue for personal injuries. A wrongful death action runs two years from the death under section 8.01-244. For a minor, section 8.01-229 does not count the time before adulthood.

6. Five years

   Bike Damage Lawsuit

   Section 8.01-243 allows five years for injury to property. Small claims court hears disputes up to $5,000.

Both notice statutes excuse a missing statement only when the officials named in them, or the insurer covering the claim, had actual knowledge of its nature, time, and place within the same period. Do not rely on the exception.

Recovery against the Commonwealth or a transportation district is capped by section 8.01-195.3 at $100,000 or the limits of any liability policy in force, whichever is greater. The same section says the Tort Claims Act does not remove the sovereign immunity of any county, city, or town.

Evidence to Preserve

Under contributory negligence, the other side needs only one careless act of yours that helped cause the crash.

• The police report number and the officer's agency.
• The driver's details. Section 46.2-894 requires a driver in an injury crash to stop and give name, address, driver's license number, and registration number.
• Any citation issued to the driver, especially under the three-foot passing law or the dooring section.
• Lane width. A photo with a reference object shows whether the lane was too narrow to share, which lets you leave the right edge and obliges the driver to change lanes.
• Your lights, photographed on the bike, and the posted speed limit if the crash happened after dark.
• Witness names, and for a no-contact hit-and-run, proof of when you reported it to police or your insurer.
• Your household's auto declarations pages, showing uninsured motorist limits, any underinsured election, and whether medical expense benefits were purchased.
• The damaged bike, unrepaired, with receipts.

Coverage for Virginia Riders

Virginia law leaves a rider exposed in four places: a fault rule that can erase the claim against the driver entirely, a household with no auto policy and so no uninsured motorist coverage to fall back on, medical expense benefits that stop at $2,000 unless someone bought more, and a $25,000 property minimum shared with everything else the driver damaged. 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 someone else says the carelessness was yours. It 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.