Your Child Was Hit While Biking in Cambridge, MA: The Rules That Work Differently for Kids

A parent whose child gets hit by a car while biking in Cambridge, Massachusetts tends to ask two questions in the first phone call. Is my kid going to be all right, and have I already missed something important. The first question belongs to the doctors. The second one has a better answer than most parents expect, because Massachusetts law treats an injured child differently from an injured adult at almost every stage of a claim, and most of those differences run in the child’s favor.

Cambridge puts a lot of children on bicycles on purpose. The city’s Safe Routes to School program introduces traffic safety in the first and second grades, runs a learn to ride course in fourth grade, and takes middle schoolers through a program on riding in real street traffic. The city’s 2020 Bicycle Plan recorded that the share of Cambridge students walking or biking to school climbed from 31.6 percent in 2015 to 42.8 percent in 2019. More children riding is good policy. It also means more children in the same intersections where adult cyclists get hurt.

The deadline to sue is not three years when the injured rider is a child

An adult cyclist in Massachusetts has three years from the date of the crash to file suit under Chapter 260, Section 2A. A child does not start on that clock at all. Chapter 260, Section 7 provides that if the person entitled to bring the action is a minor when the right to bring it first accrues, the action may be commenced within the ordinary limitation period after the disability is removed. Minority ends at eighteen. So a nine-year-old struck on Massachusetts Avenue has until her twenty-first birthday to file, not until she turns twelve.

That is real protection, and it is not an invitation to wait. A decade after a crash the responding officer has retired, the intersection has been rebuilt under the Cycling Safety Ordinance, and the witness who stopped at the scene cannot be found. The rule protects a child whose parents did not know a claim existed. It is not a reason to sit on one everybody knows about.

The parents’ own claims are on the ordinary clock, and that catches people

Two claims coming out of the same crash belong to the parents rather than to the child, and Section 7 does nothing for either of them. Chapter 231, Section 85X gives the parents of a minor child a cause of action for loss of consortium against whoever is legally responsible where the child has been seriously injured. Separately, the parents are usually the ones who actually incur the medical expenses. Both of those claims accrue to adults, so both run out three years after the crash while the child’s own claim is still years away from its deadline.

A family who waits on the theory that there is plenty of time can therefore lose the parents’ claims entirely and keep only the child’s. When the medical bills are the largest number in the case, that is an expensive distinction to learn late.

Was your child hurt in a bike crash? Get a free case review from a Cambridge injury attorney. Call 617-683-1983.

Massachusetts does not judge a child by an adult’s standard of care

Insurers routinely argue that a young rider darted out, rode against traffic, or ran a light. The legal weight of that argument is much lighter than it would be against an adult. The Supreme Judicial Court held in Mann v. Cook, 346 Mass. 174, 178 (1963) that a child’s conduct is to be judged by the standard of behavior expected from a child of like age, intelligence, and experience, and the Court reaffirmed that framing in Mathis v. Massachusetts Electric Co., 409 Mass. 256 (1991). A twelve-year-old is measured against twelve-year-olds, not against a careful adult commuter.

That standard sits on top of the ordinary Massachusetts comparative negligence rule in Chapter 231, Section 85, which bars recovery only where the injured person’s share of fault is greater than the defendant’s, and which puts the burden of proving comparative negligence on the defendant. The same arithmetic we covered for an adult cyclist who broke a traffic rule applies here with a friendlier yardstick, and the background on how fault gets assigned when a driver hits a cyclist is worth reading alongside it.

The helmet question comes up in nearly every case involving a child

Massachusetts requires a bicycle helmet only for riders and passengers sixteen years old and younger, under Chapter 85, Section 11B. The same statute contains the part that matters after a crash: a violation of that helmet requirement shall not be used as evidence of contributory negligence in any civil action. An adjuster who leads with the fact that your son was not wearing a helmet is making an argument the statute forecloses. The full picture on what riding without a helmet actually does to a claim has its own post.

If the claim is against the city, your child’s age buys you nothing

This is the trap worth reading twice. Where the crash was caused by a public entity rather than a driver, say a road defect or a hazard the city created, the claim runs through the Massachusetts Tort Claims Act, and Chapter 258, Section 4 requires written presentment to the right official within two years. In George v. Town of Saugus, 394 Mass. 40 (1985), the Supreme Judicial Court held squarely that the tolling provision in Chapter 260, Section 7 does not modify that presentment requirement. The plaintiff was sixteen when she was hurt and made presentment after she turned eighteen, and her claim was gone. Road defect claims carry their own short notice deadline as well, which we walk through in the post on pothole and road defect crashes in Cambridge, MA. Do not assume a child’s deadlines are long across the board. Against a municipality they are short and they are strict.

A settlement for a child has to clear a judge

A parent cannot simply sign a release on a child’s behalf and cash the check. Chapter 231, Section 140C1/2 lets the trial court review and approve a settlement for personal injury to a minor where a petition signed by all parties has been filed, and it authorizes the court to appoint a guardian or a guardian ad litem or to hold an evidentiary hearing first. Where no lawsuit exists yet, a party can start one by filing a complaint and a petition for settlement approval. Insurers generally insist on this once the numbers get past a modest threshold, and the point of it is to make sure the money is still there for the child later.

Which insurance pays for a child’s injuries

The mechanics are the same as for an adult rider. Personal injury protection under Chapter 90, Section 34M pays up to 8,000 dollars in medical expenses and 75 percent of lost wages regardless of fault, and Chapter 90, Section 34A defines pedestrian to include persons operating bicycles, so a child struck by a car is covered even though the family may not own the vehicle involved. Above that sits the driver’s bodily injury liability, which for policies issued or renewed on or after July 1, 2025 must be at least 25,000 dollars per person and 50,000 dollars per accident. Our walkthrough of how the insurance stack works after a Massachusetts bicycle crash covers the order the layers pay in.

What a child’s case is worth is a different question from what an adult’s is worth, because a serious injury to a growing body can affect schooling, sports, and work decades out. We wrote separately about what actually sets the number on a Cambridge bike claim. Anyone who quotes a figure for a child before the treating doctors have said anything about permanence is guessing.

What to do now

Get the medical care first and keep every record of it. Ask the Cambridge Police for the crash report. Photograph the bike, the helmet if there was one, and the intersection while it still looks the way it did. Write down what your child remembers while it is fresh. And do not give the driver’s insurer a recorded statement about your child before you have talked to a lawyer.

If your child was hurt riding in Cambridge, we will review the case for free and tell you honestly whether it is worth pursuing. Melanson Law Group is at 617-683-1983, and you can read more on our page for Cambridge bicycle accident lawyer services.