4-6-18 Teen Cyclist, 14, Seriously Injured in Dooring Incident in Palmer Square

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Paul Lazzaro on April 7, 2018 at 6:31pm

+1

Permalink Reply by David Barish on April 9, 2018 at 11:22am

We do not  know  exactly  what  happened.  One thing  I know and  we all  need to know is that there are  times when  the rider  can do everything right  and still be at risk. This is the reality of the gamble we take every time we get on our bike.  We can minimize, but not  eliminate  risk. This happened to me a couple years ago.  I was in hyper awareness mode riding home on a  January evening looking  into mirrors to  see  eyeballs and trying to give  myself as much room as  possible.  Traffic was reasonably heavy as it was the  evening commute. A door  suddenly opened the second I was passing  the car.  There was no  additional room to the  left and even if there was, a blind move to the left can  lead to being  crushed by a truck as happened near the  Payton  School a number  of  years ago.  I was thrown  into the lane  of traffic where a heroic taxi driver  stopped short which allows me to be able to  write this post.

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on April 9, 2018 at 2:49pm

I'm glad that taxi driver braked well and saved your life. I am similarly grateful to a woman who was driving behind me years ago when I was doored in Lakeview and flung out into the traffic lane in front of her car.

Permalink Reply by David Henri on April 10, 2018 at 10:20am

I learned a lesson last summer after missing being doored by inches.  When riding with a strong wind from behind, be extra extra careful as the wind can catch a door being opened and fling it fully open, even pull it out from a drivers hand.

Permalink Reply by Juan 2-3 or more mi. on April 11, 2018 at 1:08pm

It's ridiculous that we still have to vigilant with drivers and their passengers and also worry about fellow cyclists. I assume the dutch reach is still not taught in driver's ed. Here's a fun infographic another chainlinker modified with some suggestions I mentioned.