Doored
I wrote below about a man who got doored on University. He was riding down the street when a woman opened her car door into his path.
The story is pretty bad. He was not wearing a helmet, and he fell hard. He does not remember what happened, but the witnesses recall him bleeding from his ears and being unresponsive. They do not like to recall the scene.
He was in a coma for some weeks. During that time he lost his apartment and all his belongings, and of course his medical bills were astronomical. When he awoke he had the usual brain-injury problems — very bad memory, difficulty with motor-skills, and so forth. As he was uninsured, he was discharged from the hospital as soon as possible, and with no money and nowhere to go, he was left destitute. He had only recently moved to Tucson and had not yet established connections here when he was hit, and he literally found himself on the street. I don’t like to think about what it must be like to be living outside in Tucson in July while recovering from a brain injury.
Luckily we got him a settlement very quickly and he will be getting back on his feet soon.
The moral I take from this story is: try to wear a helmet more. And work on getting bike routes out of the door zone.
–Erik Ryberg
August 13th, 2010 at 6:48 pm
The section of street-car tracks between
9th St. and 8th St. on 4th Ave. put
cyclists either crossing the track at a
bad angle or in the door zone of parked
cars. The support for eliminating the
parking in that little section has been
‘meh’… and of course for moving the tracks
closer to the middle of the street, less
than ‘meh’.
Yeah, we want to attract new riders.
August 13th, 2010 at 6:49 pm
i agree _completely_. helmets are the most important thing!
August 13th, 2010 at 7:26 pm
I’m thankful there are good people out there like yourself, Erik, to help people like this when they’re most vulnerable. Good to hear that the settlement will help him get back on his feet. Are his injuries permanent or is he expected to recover in time?
While I don’t want to distract from the good news in this post, I have to ask: how the hell did TPD make the decision that she didn’t do anything wrong? He might not have been wearing a helmet but she still doored him. Dooring can be lethal even WITH a helmet on. From the sounds of it the responding cop must either not know what he’s doing or have a vendetta against cyclists.
August 14th, 2010 at 9:10 am
Bryce,
Police see it as an “accident.”
You can murder as many cyclists as you want as long as you say you didn’t see them and that it was an “accident.”
Short of involvement of alcohol or attempting to flee the scene of a crime of an accident, there is no such thing as a citation to a motorist in car on bike incidents.
August 14th, 2010 at 3:06 pm
“helmets are the most important thing!”
Getting stupid drivers off the road and training the competent ones to look out for bicycles is the most important thing.
I wear a helmet to try and prevent the horrific situation that Erik’s client is going through, but let’s not pretend that a dorky styrofoam hat is going to solve the problem of poorly designed infrastructure (Underpass) and arrogant/aggressive/oblivious drivers.
If we solve those problems (like the Dutch and the Danes have) then helmets become unnecessary.
August 16th, 2010 at 4:33 am
I think it is important not to place much emphasis on helmets or we risk moving the blame from where it should be, on negligent car-users to the victim. Not wearing a helmet is practically regarded as contributory negligence in some newspapers and it is sick. It reminds me of those stories about a rape victim which mention their attire at the time of the assault, as if that is some kind of mitigating factor.
Plus it is worth remembering that this is the kind of injury which a helmet could have made worse, the research is out there on this kind of thing, it just gets glossed over because the pro-helmet lobby is so strong.
August 16th, 2010 at 6:02 pm
[...] Tuscon cyclist doored and in a coma loses his apartment and his belongings and left destitute. [...]
August 16th, 2010 at 9:58 pm
[...] Tuscon cyclist doored and in a coma loses his apartment and his belongings and left destitute. [...]
September 2nd, 2010 at 11:03 am
Yeah – of course helmets and throwing money we don’t have at infrastructure is w a a a y more important than simple defensive riding.
Before everyone starts in about blaming the victim etc, let me just say that I agree completely that the door wielder *is* completely at fault here, legally and morally. But the real lesson to be taken away is that stupid people exist and surround us whether we like it or not, and if you want to stay alive on a bike, that’s not going to happen by depending on the competence and awareness of the other guy, or by expecting the government to keep you safe. Flinging your door open into traffic without looking is stupid and wrong and should be punished. It is also common and predictable enough that we should all be expecting and watching for it. Ride outside of the door zone if you can. Check windows and driver-side rear view mirrors of the parked cars you approach. If there is anyone sitting behind the wheel, one of two things is about to happen, count on it – the door will suddenly open, or the car will pull out into your path. (Check steering motion of the front driver-side wheel as you approach to see if it will be the latter.) If you’re paying attention you can see it – if you see it you have a good chance to work around it. Just pedaling along as obliviously as most people drive will get you killed; no amount of driver education/incentive, infrastructure improvement, or Styrofoam idiotproofing is going to change that.