Amazing cabdriver issued a ticket

Cabdriver avoids fallen cyclists and gets a ticket.

George Lutfallah

• Mon, Aug 01, 2011

Amazing cabdriver issued a ticket

Chicago cabdriver Bogdan Vintilescu was driving east on Wilson Avenue when a young woman riding a bicycle suddenly fell in front of his cab after she was “doored” by someone in a parked car. Vintilescu slammed on his brakes and simultaneously swerved left to avoid crushing the cyclist.

After police arrived on the scene, Vintilescu was ticketed for failing to reduce speed and the person in the parked car was apparently not even cited. Those are the breaks for a Chicago cabbie. It was only due to his instincts and quick thinking as a professional taxi driver that the cyclist wasn't gravely injured. Just last week another young woman by the name of Jacqueline Michon was killed in Chicago when she fell off her bicycle and was run over by a truck.

Vintilescu's skill prevented such a tragedy. In spite of this he will have to take time off of work and pay for parking to go to court and risk a ticket on his driving record.
Fortunately Vintilescu's cab was equipped with a security camera that looks forward, which caught the dooring scene. Hopefully he'll be cleared in court.

Not only did Vintilescu act with extreme skill, he did so while he had a passenger on board! Seems to me he should have been given a medal instead of a ticket.

Tags: cab, driver

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on August 18, 2011 at 5:39pm

It would be nice if it works out that way.

Tim S said:

it would be something if the court threw out the ticket against the cabbie and reissued a summons to the twit in the SUV.

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Permalink Reply by Christopher on August 19, 2011 at 10:06am

Sadly, Illinois Vehicle code states that unless your vehicle was actually involved, you are not involved. I once swerved to avoid a car and flipped the SUV I was driving, the driver who caused the accident stayed on scene, told the police what happened, and was not cited. Fortunately, neither was I. Chicago needs to train it's law enforcement to properly enforce the "dooring" ordinance. IF The SUV Driver did make contact with the cyclist, even with the door, perhaps someone should file a "leaving the scene of an accident" report on the driver, since she declined to volunteert information?

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Permalink Reply by A. Badger on August 19, 2011 at 10:21am

I apologize to the like, 5 good cops in chicago, but by and far CPD are lazy bastards. I called 911 a few years ago about 3 underage drunks trying to load this passed out girl into their car. She was at that stomach-pump point, the dudes (plus driver) were *Hammered*. the 911 circus went to the wrong side of the street just as the dudes were successful in getting the girl loaded up so I told the cop parked at starbucks across the street these guys were about to leave the scene. he yelled at me for interrupting him. wtf. I can totally visualize an idiot cop not ticketing the person who doored the biker

Cameron Puetz said:

I'm really confused about what happened here. Did the cabdriver cause another crash by swerving to avoid the first crash? Tickets for failure to reduce speed are pretty much only ever issued to drivers involved in a crash. Some piece of the story is missing here.
On another note why is CPD so terrible at responding to bike crashes. The citation for dooring is pretty straight forward. The cop would have to be pretty lazy or incompetent not to issue it.

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Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on August 19, 2011 at 10:53am

You're forgetting the new dooring statute, which was mentioned in the initial posting.

Christopher said:

Sadly, Illinois Vehicle code states that unless your vehicle was actually involved, you are not involved. I once swerved to avoid a car and flipped the SUV I was driving, the driver who caused the accident stayed on scene, told the police what happened, and was not cited. Fortunately, neither was I. Chicago needs to train it's law enforcement to properly enforce the "dooring" ordinance. IF The SUV Driver did make contact with the cyclist, even with the door, perhaps someone should file a "leaving the scene of an accident" report on the driver, since she declined to volunteert information?