Kevin O’Sullivan adds his view to a Guardian article on the legal advice that needs to be considered for the growing number of bike riders in the UK.

Sales at Halfords, one of Britain’s biggest bicycle vendors, improved 7.2 per cent last year; cycling is on the rise in most cities and increased in London alone by 91 per cent in the past 12 months; and the government is wedded to encouraging pedal power nationwide as a way of getting fit, beating the traffic and bringing down carbon emissions.

In fact, there’s so much going for cycling that people are increasingly inclined to ignore the dangers and how much an accident could cost them. According to accident prevention charity RoSPA, about 16,000 cyclists were injured in 2006, the latest year for which figures are available, but between 60 and 90 per cent of incidents go unreported.

The reality is that accidents that don’t involve another party are sometimes tricky to prove, but it’s worth discussing any possible claim with a personal injury lawyer. ‘Cyclists tend not to want to make a quick buck’, says Kevin O’Sullivan, a keen cyclist who has represented other cyclists for more than 10 years. ‘But they should make a claim because costs start mounting up and the law is there to protect them.’

Using a solicitor specialising in cycling accidents is a wise move. ‘They’re very used to seeing the kind of accident that cyclists have and the arguments that insurers try to make,’ says O’Sullivan.