Team Sky could take legal action over the incident in which their Spanish rider Juan Antonio Flecha was injured when hit by a television technician's car at the Tour de France on Sunday. The team said they were investigating the accident, which is also the subject of an inquiry by police in the town of Aurillac. Vacansoleil, the team of the other rider injured, Johnny Hoogerland, were also not ruling out legal action, although they said on Monday it was "not a priority".

Jean-Pascal Violet, the public prosecutor for Aurillac, said that police had begun interviewing witnesses and the driver of the car that swerved into Flecha and Hoogerland. Violet said his investigation team were acting quickly to interview anyone involved in the crash including, if possible, the riders, before the Tour de France moved on and witnesses left the area.

Dave Brailsford, the Team Sky principal, is leading his team's own investigation into the accident, which occurred as the car was attempting to overtake the main escape of the stage on Sunday. The driver swerved to avoid a tree and knocked Flecha to the tarmac, with Hoogerland flying over the Spaniard and into a barbed wire fence.

The Dutchman had 33 stitches on Sunday night and Flecha had x-rays on an elbow. Both riders will continue in the race in stage 10 to Lavaur, although Flecha said he was worried about both his elbow which is "pretty swollen and painful" and a knee which "has a hole so big and deep they couldn't really stitch it. They cut around it and put in one stitch just so I would be able to ride." Hoogerland will start stage 10 wearing the polka-dot jersey of best climber, but said: "I have no idea what I will be able to do in the race. I am better on my bike than I am going up the stairs though."

Brailsford said the team will complete their inquiry before a decision is taken on what to do next. "It was plain for everyone to see that crash shouldn't have happened," he said. "Everyone saw the severity of it so I don't think we need to fan the flames. Once you've got the facts then you can decide and evaluate whether there's an opportunity for the police to do something. There are different options available, but [we'll wait] until we've got the facts and got the lawyers to say 'You could do this', 'Team Sky could do that', 'Juan as an individual might want to do that'. We need to have a clear picture of what those options are before we then decide which one we may or may not wish to pursue."

The picture is complicated for both teams because they are dependent on the goodwill of the Tour de France organisers Amaury Sport Organisation for entry to many of the races on the calendar. Last year, for example, Sky qualified for the Tour as a "wild card". Amaury runs not just the Tour but a host of one-day races and short stage races, as well as being heavily involved with the Tour of Spain.

There was anger within the peloton at the accident, with the third-placed rider on Sunday's stage, Sandy Casar, stating that in his view the car had not needed to overtake the escape. "We had a four-minute lead and the car was not obliged to pass at that moment. I saw the car was going to touch us and I had time to slam on the brakes, but it's too often like that.

"The cars and motorbikes believe that they have priority. They drive in the race without paying attention to the riders. We are the principal actors but we get less and less respect. I don't say there are too many cars in the racebut you need to know when to pass. A lot of drivers don't understand racing. On small roads like that that car could have waited before going past." There are 130 cars with passes that allow them to overtake the riders.

There have been two accidents in the 2011 Tour involving media vehicles, a motorbike and a car, but they are not completely unprecedented. In 1968 the Frenchman Raymond Poulidor was forced to abandon after being hit by a motorbike, while in 1977 the Belgian Lucien van Impe had staged what could have been a race-winning escape but was knocked into a ditch by a car.

Tour exits no match for recent years

The Tour of 2011 has been seriously affected by rider withdrawals, mainly through crashes, but is by no means the worst in recent years. The French website Cyclocosm analysed every race since 1997, and concluded that the 2003, 1997 and 2007 races were harder hit. In the first nine stages the 2011 Tour had lost 19 riders, or 9.09% of the 198 starters. That compares with 9.52% and 9.6% in the 2007 and 1997 races, while the worst by far was the Centenary Tour of 2003, which was affected by a massive pile-up at the end of the first stage. After nine stages of that year's race, 26 riders had retired, or 13.13% of the field.