We were appalled when, after yet another door prize death,a policeman discussed charging the woman who did it and said “If she didn’t look, would that be negligence? It’s very hard to label that as negligent." In our survey,75% of the respondents agreed that " The driver broke the law and killed someone and should be charged to the full extent of the law."
Well it turns out, she has been charged, with "Open Vehicle Door Improperly", which carries a maximum punishment, if convicted, of demerit points and an approximate $110 fine.
Is this enough? "The consequences should reflect the severity of the crime," said Yvonne Bambrick, the assistant co-ordinator of the Toronto Cyclists Union. "We do not believe that this charge is adequate in this matter" ::The StarPress release from Police below the fold.
Toronto Police Service
News Release Traffic fatality #20/2008, Update, Charge laid Friday, June 27, 2008 - 3:11 PM
On Thursday, May 22, 2008, at 1:12 p.m., police responded to a personal injury collision at Eglinton Avenue West/Avenue Road.
It is alleged that:
- a 57-year-old man was cycling east on Eglinton Avenue West, passing a line of parked cars on the south side of the street,
- an occupant of one of the cars, a woman, 43, opened the driver's door,
- the cyclist struck the door, lost control of his bicycle, fell onto the roadway and was struck by a truck.
The cyclist was taken to hospital where he succumbed to his injuries. This is the first cycling fatality of 2008.
Traffic Services, in consultation with the City of Toronto’s Prosecutors' Office, have laid a charge of “Open Vehicle Door Improperly” under the Highway Traffic Act.
An information laying out the charge has been filed with Old City Hall Courts.
On the road it's called "dooring", the open door to disaster. The driver of a parked car opens the door without looking behind for approaching bicyclists. The biker either hits the door or swerves into the traffic lane, either option can be lethal. In a cooperative world the biker would see the driver in the parked car, signal to the traffic behind him and then take the lane to avoid the "door zone". The message in this short video is simple: Watch for doors, Signal, Take the lane, ShareTheRoad.
This report was written by Mai Martinez for CBS. Check out the link at the end of the story. They have a heartbreaking video version of the story posted that demands viewing. —Jerry
June 10, 2008
CHICAGO (CBS) ― A Chicago cyclist, who was hit and killed by an SUV after crashing into an open car door, was remembered Tuesday as a loving young man with a bright future ahead of him.
As CBS 2's Mai Martinez reports, he had recently taken up cycling and was looking forward to his first summer of riding in Chicago.
Those who knew Clint Miceli said he was almost always smiling. It was that trademark smile and his wonderful sense of humor his friends said that they'll miss most.
At Plan B Advertising, where the 22-year-old worked, his co-workers said that if they wanted something done, or just wanted a good laugh, Miceli's desk was the place to be.
Tuesday, that desk had the opposite effect as his friends realized that Miceli was really gone.
Friend and co-worker Mitch Cooper said, "I don't know how you replace that. Probably you're lucky if you do."
Miceli was killed Monday as he was biking home from work on North LaSalle Street. His friends said a child opened the door of a parked car and Miceli crashed into it.
The impact sent Miceli into the nearby intersection, where he was struck and killed by a passing car.
Friend and co-worker Ric van Sickle said, "It's not someone you can point a finger at and assign blame to, it's just a tragic accident."
Miceli's friends hope a memorial -- a white bicycle with his photograph pasted to it -- will remind people of how precious life is and how easily it can be taken away. They said that drivers and cyclists need to be more aware of their surroundings and more respectful of each other
"Cycling is dangerous, and it comes down to making sure that you're ready before you head out into the streets," van Sickle said.
It was a sentiment echoed by many who bike in Chicago.
Cyclist Dave Sienko said, "You've got to look both ways. One thing everybody should be careful about is opening a door. Certainly, that's pretty obvious to me."
For now, Miceli's friends have said only one thing gives them comfort. "I know he was doing something he loved, and a grin on his face in the seconds before he was taken away," van Sickle said.
The driver of the parked car was cited for opening a car door in traffic. The driver of the car which hit Miceli was not ticketed.
I had to share this thoughtful article written by Jen Chung from Gothamist. She has also included various links to other interesting media coverage of this sad story. —Jerry December 6, 2007
Smith lived on West 9th Street and worked as an engineer at Town Hall in midtown. His partner of 36 years John Moody said that he had an early day because he was helping prepare a show for school children: "He was looking to come home early this afternoon after he finished the show; it was just a routine day." Smith was already dead by the time Moody made it to Bellevue.
The Post calls it a "FREAK MISHAP," but given that Smith was cycling in the bicycle lane, which is designated for cyclists, we don't know how much of a freak accident it could be. Some witnesses do say that Smith was not wearing a helmet. The truck's driver wasissued summonsesfor parking in front of a fire hydrant and blocking the bike lane while the truck's passenger was issued a summons for "opening a door unsafely."
Times-Up will be having its3rd Annual Memorial Ride on January 6, 2008. Smith is the 22nd known person to be killed while biking in 2007; that's up from 14 in 2006. And earlier this week, Transportation Alternativesreleased CrashStat 2.0, a map showing locations of incidents where pedestrian and bicycles have been hit by vehicles.
This is my knee on the day of the accident. I was biking down Bulevardi (hereafter referred to as The Death Trap Bicycle Lane From Hell) when a taxi passenger opened his car door into my lane. It all happened so, so fast, and I was in shock, joking around and laughing and apologising and not actually feeling any pain for about an hour and a half, after which this started to sting like a mother. No mechanical damage, it would seem, and I've been icing it in a way that's probably melting glaciers somewhere. But it's gonna photograph well, I says. (From October 11, 2007)
I have been fortunate enough not to have had any "door prizes" since I started riding a bicycle since I was a little kid - the 70's. However, I have had some nonfatal, near-misses.Always watch the parked cars!
After checking out this site check out Riin's Rants, The Door Zone Project. A small site with some disturbing facts on deaths caused by "dooring"Check out http://www-personal.umich.edu/%7Eriin/bikes/
These images are two several taken by Robert Winters for the Cambridge Civic Journal regarding the July 2nd 2002 fatality of cyclists Dana Laird. Dana was run over and killed as she swerved to avoid a car door on Mass Ave. It has been posted here with Roberts permission. Soon I'll be adding a separate photo page to display more photos Robert took at the scene and other general photography related to Car Door accidents. Until then please visit Roberts site to view more photos of this unfortunate incident.
Additional information: Go to the_ "Feburary 2005" section at the bottom of this page. There you'll find a post by Matthew Pickett who's brother knew Dana.
Go to the_ links section under "magazine articles" to read the Boston Phoenix account of the accident.
Here's my story: It was just before 6pm on November 5, 2001, and I was pedaling down the San Francisco streets on my way to the train station for the evening commute home. Night falls early in November, and the daylight was fading. In those days my bike didn't have a headlight. And although I wear a helmet, I hadn't put it on; it dangled from my handlebars.I was keeping close to the right-hand side of the street and traveling at a pretty quick clip when I saw a car door opening in front of me. I swerved, but not enough to avoid clocking the door with my right pedal. My launched into the air like a missile. I remember flying, thinking about what landing would be like. I crashed into the pavement and realized that I had gotten off lightly. Rather than smashing my head, I had merely scraped my nose against the asphalt. I had instinctively put out my left hand - my dominant hand - to break the fall.The guy in the car didn't even get out to check on me; he closed the door and sat silently in his car as I picked myself up. Then I noticed that my wrist was hurting, and my only thought was to get ice on it ASAP. I ran into a nearby eatery and got a bag of ice, then picked up my bike and walked to the train station. I forgot all about the guy who had doored me.I thought my wrist was sprained, but it turned out that I had broken my left scaphoid, a tiny carpal bone that often fractures in the course of a hard fall on an outstretched hand - it's a common injury among skiers, skateboarders, motorcyclists, basketball players, and soldiers dodging incoming ordnance. Even when it's treated properly, it doesn't heal in 10 percent of cases. Over the next several months, I learned that I was in that 10 percent.Here it is, June 2005, and I'm still working on getting my wrist back into shape. I got surgery in late 2002, and which finally healed the fracture, but it left my range of motion compromised, so I put my wrist in a stretching device three times a day. The wrist is pretty functional, but it will never be back to normal; Even if I get the range of motion back, the cartilage damage is permanent, leaving me with an arthritic wrist.If you get doored and you're unfortunate enough to break your scaphoid, my advice is: don't wait to see whether it will heal naturally. Get it surgically fixed right away if you can. You'll avoid a bunch of unpleasant complications that way.
I did get hit by the door, but it was still closed.
Sunday afternoon, summertime on Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica can be pretty hectic. The park overlooking the bluffs is very attractive and probably the best place for a young family to go to get out of the heat.
Woe to the poor cyclist that gets in the way of a car diving for a parking space.
Ocean is a slight downhill grade and I was in excellent shape in 2002 so I was cruising along at 30 mph, just about the speed of traffic. Up ahead, I notice that a car pulled out of a parking space - just far enough ahead that it wasn't obnoxious. And it was such a beautiful day, why worry...Then the car next to me, who had recently pulled up along side of me, veers hard into my thigh. I am not a wall flower, so I start screaming and pounding on the window but the car just keeps coming. The woman in the passenger seat turns to look me in the eyes and I can see she is screaming behind the glass, but the car just keeps turning into the newly opened space. I had nowhere to go so I hit the curb without being able to slow and this turned out to be a good thing as the sidewalk is double wide.. I had enough momentum to fly over said side walk and land on the grass beyond, tumbling into a palm tree. The driver was nice enough, admitted to being a sometime cyclist. Everything seemed fine until I got on the bike to go home. The first left hand corner I took, the carbon front fork failed and down I went at 5 mph, separating my shoulder. Oh, well.
I was on my way to rehearsal at Planet X studios on Folsom st (no longer there). I was on Valencia and made a right onto 16th, 5 seconds after I made that right a car door opened and wrenched the handlebars right out from under me. I went flying and landed with my legs and feet in the street.
A car came and ran over my right foot and part of my lower leg, I watched it happen from street level; it ripped my sneaker right off.
Talk about instant pain; it felt as if my leg had been dipped in boiling oil, the pain seemed to stick to my leg like hot wax. This all happened in front of a bar right next to alleyway called Randal. A bunch of Mexican guys came out from the bar and picked me up off the street and placed me on the sidewalk. Someone got a milk crate to elevate my leg; and they talked to me to make sure I didn't go into shock or have some bad trip from the accident.
In the ambulance I called the band to tell 'em I wasn't gonna make it to practice that night. No broken bones, just major tendon/ligament and soft tissue damage. The doc said it would have been much easier if I just broke the bones, they could fuse 'em together and voila...new bones, but it takes much longer and it's much more complicated with tendon/ligament injuries.
The person who ran me over made it seem like it was my fault and she got away with it. Her insurance company said there was no way they were gonna pay; we would have to go to court and since I did not have a light on my bike, forget about it, I was gonna lose. I did get some dough from the person who doored me; he was a pretty decent guy about the whole thing, he called me later on that night to see how I was doing and to apologize.
I learned a lot from that accident; always use a light at night, always keep your eye on parked cars and always assume that every door will open into you and that people don't see you and don't care.
Had my first and only experience of being doored today. When I first moved to Oxford I thought it was a really bike friendly town, and yes, it has more cyclists and cycle lanes than most UK town, but that doesn't save us from the almighty door attack!
I was riding up St Clements up towards Headington hill on the green cycle lane, the traffic was at a stand still waiting for the light to change. All of a sudden someone opened their car door right in front of me. I could almost see it open in slow motion. I think my front wheel hit the door, and I tumbled over the bike and onto the pavement. Luckily I ended up on the pavement with a bruised leg and slightly mangled knee. The two guys in the car were super apologetic, and offered to drive me home or to A&E but I didn't think it was necessary. ( I should have got someone's number, because i now have to repair my bike!)
Apart from hobbling round for the next few days I'm fine, but I recognise I've got away lucky as hell. It's amazing when you talk to people, even people who don't cycle, how many of them either know someone, or know someone who knows someone who's been harmed or killed by getting doored. This really needs to be be more universally acknowledged as a serious issue.
-- Anonymous Cyclist from Oxford Brookes University, England
I am one of those who would like to ride a bike instead of drive to work, but fear the inhospitable atmosphere that exists for cyclist (especially in the burbs). I just wanted to applaud Toronto's use of stickers on the rear passenger windows that warn Taxi passengers to look for cyclists before opening the door. I have yet to see this simple, but effective use of warning stickers on other cabs in other cities. Since others here have lamented the taxi as a number one culprit in dooring incidents I would encourage you to concentrate your efforts on getting stickers into the rear door windows of taxis around the world.
I saw your stickers and I wanted to find out if I could get some of them, I love the graphic and the idea. I did see a woman get doored once in berkeley, she was older and I think broke her hand or arm. Its no bullshit, doors are the number one hazard out there, that's why I will take the lane, fuck it if people honk.
Added your message to the blog!! I nearly got doored this morning on the London Road -- by a bin lorry (garbage truck)! I was overtaking it, then got hemmed in by another truck and was about to get squashed!!! -- but it only moved forward a couple of yards -- then the door opened!
