Road Hazard and Pavement Defect E-Bike Crashes

Why Surface Defects Put E-Bike Riders on the Ground

A defect that a car passes over without the driver noticing can put a rider in hospital. The reasons are mechanical rather than legal, and they matter because an adjuster evaluating the file will start from a car driver's intuition about what a pothole is.

• Longitudinal cracks and expansion joints run parallel to travel and can capture a narrow tyre, which removes steering instantly.
• Sunken or proud utility covers sit precisely where a rider is directed to ride — near the right edge and in the bicycle lane.
• Edge drop-offs where pavement meets a lower shoulder catch a tyre on re-entry.
• Debris and sand collecting at the right edge, which is exactly where § 316.2065(5)(a) directs a slower rider to be.
• Bicycle lanes that end without a transition, forcing a merge at speed.
• Construction plating and grade changes, often unmarked for anything narrower than a car.

An e-bike concentrates the consequences: more mass, higher speed, and the same contact patch as a bicycle. The rider goes over the bars rather than around the defect.

Who Is Responsible for the Surface

The first real task is identifying who controlled the stretch of roadway, because that determines who must be notified and when. A single corridor can change hands between a city, a county, and the state within a few blocks, and a trail may sit under a different authority again.

Once identified, the claim runs under Fla. Stat. § 768.28. Florida is a sovereign immunity state: a government body cannot be sued at all except to the extent the Legislature has permitted, and § 768.28 is that permission, with conditions that have no equivalent in a claim against a driver.

There is a further threshold the statute does not spell out but Florida law imposes: the distinction between discretionary, planning-level decisions — which remain immune — and operational-level ones, which do not. Whether a particular failure falls on one side or the other is genuinely contested in most cases and is not something to assess from a web page. It is, however, the question a lawyer will start with.

A private party can also be responsible. Where a contractor created the condition, or a utility left a cover proud of the surface, the claim may run against them without the § 768.28 apparatus applying at all.

Legally Reviewed By

David I. Shiner, Esq.

Founder, Shiner Law Group · AV Preeminent® rated · Florida Bar member since 2002

David I. Shiner founded Shiner Law Group and has been a member of The Florida Bar since 2002. He is a graduate of Nova Southeastern University’s law school and holds an AV Preeminent® rating from Martindale-Hubbell. The firm represents injured people across Florida from offices in Boca Raton, West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Pierce, Orlando, Wellington, and Belle Glade, and handles these cases on a contingency basis with free consultations and no attorney’s fee unless there is a recovery.

Content on this page legally reviewed by David I. Shiner, Esq. · Fla. Bar No. 572721 About this site →

What to Do After Going Down on a Defect

1. Get medical care. Single-vehicle falls are routinely under-treated because there is no other driver and no obvious defendant, and the delay becomes the causation argument later.
2. Photograph the defect the same day, with something in frame for scale. A shoe, a water bottle, a phone. Defects get repaired — sometimes within days of being reported — and once filled, the condition that caused the crash no longer exists.
3. Photograph the wider scene. Lane markings, the bicycle lane and where it ends, signage, and the approach in both directions.
4. Fix the location precisely. Nearest address, cross street, mile marker, or a dropped pin. Jurisdiction is determined from location, and 'about halfway down the block' will not do it.
5. Report it, and keep proof that you did. A report creates a dated record of the condition even though it does not by itself establish prior notice.
6. Preserve the bicycle unrepaired. Wheel, fork, and frame damage corroborate the mechanism — and rule in or out a component failure, which would point at a manufacturer instead of a road authority.
7. Start public records requests early. Prior complaints, work orders, inspection logs, and resurfacing schedules are how prior notice is proved, and they take time to obtain while the 3-year presentment period under § 768.28(6)(a) runs.

Proving the Body Knew, and the Clocks That Are Running

These claims turn on notice. It is not enough that a defect existed; the responsible body must have known or should have known about it. That is built from records rather than from the photograph of the hole.

Meanwhile three clocks run. § 768.28(6)(a) gives 3 years to present the claim in writing to the agency and, except for a municipality, county, or the Florida Space Authority, to the Department of Financial Services. § 768.28(14) gives 4 years to commence the action. And § 768.28(6)(b) makes clear that the notice and denial requirements “shall not be deemed to be elements of the cause of action and shall not affect the date on which the cause of action accrues” — waiting on an agency does not extend anything.

One distinction is worth holding onto: those periods belong to § 768.28 claims. Where the responsible party is a private contractor or a utility rather than a government body, the § 768.28 apparatus does not apply and the ordinary two-year negligence period under Fla. Stat. § 95.11(5)(a) governs instead — a shorter clock, not a longer one. Since it is often unclear at the outset who created the condition, the safe course is to work to the earliest applicable deadline rather than the most generous.

Fault is apportioned here as everywhere else: under Fla. Stat. § 768.81(2) a rider's own share reduces the award proportionately, and § 768.81(6) bars recovery entirely above 50 percent. Expect the argument that the defect was open and obvious and should have been avoided — which is answered with sightlines, surface photographs, and the fact that § 316.2065(5)(a) directs a slower rider to the right-hand edge where these defects collect.

Claims against government bodies sets out the procedure in full.

Frequently Asked Questions