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news
2023 Trek FX range Cyclist sues Shimano and Trek for $2 million after brake lever "impaled" foot-long wound in thigh
A cyclist in the United States is suing Trek and Shimano for $2 million in damages after he was left with a foot-long gash and "permanent numbness" in his thigh after he was allegedly "impaled" by a brake lever as he lost balance trying to avoid a crash.
Timothy Lynch brought the lawsuit against Trek Bicycle Corp. and Shimano North American Holding Corp. at the U.S. District Court in Proidence last week, Rhode Island Lawyers Weekly reported, in relation to injuries allegedly sustained while using a South Kingstown bike path on 28 June 2022.
The plaintiff said he had been cycling along the path with his wife when she slowed due to other riders using the route. As he slowed Mr Lynch says he lost balance and swerved to avoid making contact with his wife's bike in front, when the left V-brake lever on his handelbars "impaled" his left thigh, causing a foot-long wound.
> Cyclist paralysed in crash to sue Planet X insurers for £10 million
His wife applied pressure to the wound for 45 minutes to stem the flow of blood before he was rushed to hospital by a fire department unit.
"As a result of his injury, Mr. Lynch was an in-patient at Rhode Island Hospital from June 28, 2022 to July 7, 2022, during which time he underwent three surgeries for his wound, each of which required general anesthesia, and also included a skin graft from his right thigh," the complaint says.
"As a result of his injury, Mr. Lynch has permanent numbness in his left thigh around the injury area, and permanent and visible scarring.
"This action is instituted by Plaintiff for damages that arise from serious impalement and laceration bodily injuries suffered by Plaintiff which were caused by a defective Shimano V-Brake lever on a Trek bicycle.
"Defendant Shimano breached its duty of reasonable care by providing to Defendant Trek improperly designed V-Brakes, such that under normal and intended use, a bike rider such as Mr. Lynch could be impaled on and be lacerated by a V-Brake lever and suffer serious bodily injuries if he fell off the bike."
The bicycle Mr Lynch was riding at the time of the injury was bought in 2017 from a bike shop in nearby Narragansett, but was believed to be manufactured by Trek using Shimano components, including the V-brakes.
Mr Lynch is seeking $2 million in damages, with both claims against Trek and Shimano accusing the defendents of negligent design, negligent failure to warn, strict liability, and breach of express and implied warranties.
Dan is the road.cc news editor and joined in 2020 having previously written about nearly every other sport under the sun for the Express, and the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for The Non-League Paper. Dan has been at road.cc for four years and mainly writes news and tech articles as well as the occasional feature. He has hopefully kept you entertained on the live blog too.
Never fast enough to take things on the bike too seriously, when he's not working you'll find him exploring the south of England by two wheels at a leisurely weekend pace, or enjoying his favourite Scottish roads when visiting family. Sometimes he'll even load up the bags and ride up the whole way, he's a bit strange like that.
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33 comments
I hope I'm on the jury. He won't get a dime.
We all learnt to ride bikes when we were young. I had Brake levers on my bikes back then. How else were we supposed to make the brakes work. The way I see it. Is it's your choice to buy the bike and your choice in what components the bike has. In my opinion learn to ride the bike properly and take responsibility for your own actions. Stop trying to get rich quick. Also I think you should sue your wife for slowing down not Trek or Shimano
Children have died as a result of being impacted by bicycle handlebars and levers and no-one thought to sue the bicycle company..
https://road.cc/content/news/266825-girl-9-dies-after-brake-lever-severs...
I understood it was a requirement to sell bikes with handlebar grips that prevent this, presumably for this reason. Not sure why brake levers shouldn't be given the same considerarion
FFS 'merica.
I predict an out-of-court settlement for mid 6-figures, and brake levers getting rounder ends in the next few years.
It's for this baffling reason and similar cases that whenever I order a hot coffee or tea from McDonald's I'm warned by the cup "Contents Hot", when actually that's exactly what I wanted.
Wasn't the original case that the water was almost scalding?
It was, it's always struck me as a bit unfair that this is the benchmark for "silly American claims" - IIRC the victim was an elderly woman who suffered very severe 3rd degree burns and needed a long hospital stay and skin grafts from a spillage due to the fact that McDonald's mandated that its franchises had to serve coffee at 190 degrees Farenheit (for youngsters that's 88 degrees Centigrade), forty-odd degrees hotter than most other companies. At 150 degrees any spillage can be wiped off long before it burns, at 190 scalding is almost instanteneous. Again from memory all the lady asked for initially was her medical expenses and for McD's to consider serving beverages at a lower temperature, it was only because they refused that they got turned over for a large sum.
(for youngsters that's 88 degrees Centigrade)
Or, indeed, anyone using a logical temperature scale.
Such silly claims, overload courts and make bicycles more expensive, with money going to lawyers and printers, not engineers.
Sometimes bad design needs to be fixed but this design with rounded edges seem hard to improve, especially when there are more dangerous spots on a bike to hit.
This is one of the unrealised casualties of an insane private medical system like the US's people try to recoup their medical costs via equally insane claims.
In the NHS (even now) he'd of been patched up in the ED or admitted for a couple of days and then sent home healthy and debt free.
but also it leads to Hospitals keeping patients in for longer than necessary, either because they are scared of being sued, or because they want to increase their revenue stream, dpending on how cynical you are.
For example check out average time in maternity in UK Vs USA, and then check child mortality results in those countries. Significantly longer in hospital after birth, but not improvement in outcomes.
So hundreds of millions of cyclists use these brake levers every day without incident, but this guy inflicts an injury on himself in a billion-to-one accident and blames the lever. Hmmm. Not convinced he's going to win, but this is the USA and it is legal, so anything could happen.
Imagine if everything we used had to be made so that it could not possibly inflict injury: beds would have to be no more than 10cm off the ground, knives and forks would have to be blunt and cars would be banned.
Wait a minute.........
Bicycles would be banned as well, given they inherently require balancing to stay upright and are easily crashed even without other vehicles being involved; I had a minor crash, where my bike handlebar clipped an object at a very slow speed, causing the bike to fall over; my shin impacted the frame as I fell, which resulted in a knee ligament ripping completely away from the bone.
He bought the bike in 2017 and crashed in 2023. That's 5 years worth of wear and tear for which neither Shimano nor Trek are liable. It's also 5 years that the claimant should have developed bike handling skills to safely perform an emergency stop.
The only person he has (extremely tenuous) ground to sue on is his wife, for causing the crash.
5 years worth of resting/scraping it against walls roughing up the ends of the brake levers?
not taking any responsibility for his own lack of basic skill in handling a bicycle then....wow...hope this stays in the USA...but its also a consequence of health insurance and no public health care...maybe his health insurance refused to cover it becuase it was his fault so now he needs to blame someone to recover his hospital costs...
Good old USA 3rd world health care! I came off last year swerving a pedestrian who jumped into the bike lane without warning. Collapsed lung, ruptured AC joint, 12 rib fractures and 3 transverse process fractures. I was in emergency surgery 10mins after walking into hospital, 6 days in hospital, 8 weeks of regular rehab visits after discharge (rehab available was unlimited but I decided it wasnt needed after 8 weeks). Zero cost to me, no insurance required. So thankful that I live in a country with a proper public health care system.
In Trumpistan the provision of public health care is Socialism that deprives the consumer of their right of choice.
No, I don't believe a word that #45 says either. Neither am I indebted to Insurance companies, thankfully.
I'm going to assume flat bar here. Shimano lever up top, versus generic (probably child's bike) lever at bottom. I know which I'd rather hit my thigh in a freak crash, but overall I'd rather have the top one on my bike.
Still, there must have been a crazy amount of force to break the skin, even with the "pointier" one.
Ok, the PDF of the lawsuit is online. It's identified as a "Trek Level 1 Road Bike" purchased in 2017 which "had three gears and came equipped with V-Brakes on each handlebar." "The brake levers were metallic with a thin end."
I have no idea what bike that could be, guessing the lawyers got a lot of it wrong.
Maybe this Sora equipped model, but those aren't V brakes.
I was thinking "FX 1" rather than "Level 1" and a liberal definition of "road bike", as in "not off-road" - in which case this would fit:
https://www.trekbikes.com/gb/en_GB/bikes/hybrid-bikes/fitness-bikes/fx/f...
I think you got it! Those Tektros are V brakes at least, and it's a 3x7.
**Edit** Ignore this post, initial look at the bike was misleading.
If that is the model in question, one party or the other has one of the easiest outs in legal history.
Either the offending levers were Tektro and Shimano walk away, or they were Shimano brakes and Trek can wash their hands with "They aren't the brakes as specified for this model, it's up to the retailer to explain why this suit is frivolous"
I don't think Tektro brakes necessarily implies Tektro levers.
Indeed, I am mistaken.
The callipers are Tektro, but the shifters spec'd are Shimano Altus EF500 7-speed, which are some clunky gear shifter/ brake lever combo, now under the Acera product line, and the brake lever looks to be horrible, possibly even stamped sheet metal.
https://bike.shimano.com/en-EU/product/component/acera-t3000/ST-EF500-7R...
It still doesn't absolve the guy of personal responsibility, that any physical activity carries inherent risk
Not that, it has Tektro brakes.
Shimano levers
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