“Everywhere he went Steve made a friend. He enjoyed riding motorcycles for many years and going up to Laconia for bike week.”
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A crash on Sacramento Street on Nov. 24, 2021, sent a cyclist to the hospital with major injuries. Credit: Sofia Zander
The woman, a 43-year-old mother from Oakland, had been on her way to meet her husband and their three young children for lunch at Sacramento and Dwight Way when the crash happened Nov. 24 at 1:10 p.m., authorities said.
The Berkeley Fire Department rushed the woman, who at one point was not breathing and had no pulse, to Highland Hospital in an effort to save her life. Medical workers were ultimately able to stabilize her and, in the hours after the crash, police reported that the cyclist was expected to survive. As of Thursday, the woman was still hospitalized but in stable condition, authorities told Berkeleyside.
Just before the collision, the cyclist had been riding north on Sacramento Street and had just crossed Ashby Avenue when the parked driver, a 44-year-old San Pablo man, opened his door into her, the California Highway Patrol told Berkeleyside on Thursday evening. When the door hit her, the cyclist fell into the roadway.
A 75-year-old Berkeley woman who had been driving behind the cyclist then struck her at 20 mph, said Officer David Arias, CHP Oakland spokesperson. The driver remained at the scene and cooperated with authorities.
The CHP has identified the primary collision factor in the collision as Vehicle Code 22517: “No person shall open the door of a vehicle on the side available to moving traffic unless it is reasonably safe to do so and can be done without interfering with the movement of such traffic.”
Arias said, speaking generally, criminal charges are unlikely. The agency tends to pursue criminal charges only when malicious intent can be established, such as when someone is driving recklessly or impaired.
That does not preclude the possibility of civil charges between parties affected by a collision, he added.
The California Highway Patrol took on last week’s investigation because Berkeley’s own traffic enforcement resources are stretched so thin, BPD said previously. The agency has just one police officer assigned full time to traffic enforcement across the entire city; at least three officers in the city’s traffic bureau are out on injury, BPD said recently.
The city of Berkeley has already had eight traffic fatalities this year. And a new collision Wednesday night in the Berkeley Hills sent a 75-year-old pedestrian to the hospital; as of Thursday, she remained in the ICU and her survival was uncertain.
Berkeley is actively working to end traffic fatalities and severe injury crashes by 2028 through a program called Vision Zero.
PORTSMOUTH — After an hour of comments from the public, and the fire and police chiefs, the Parking and Traffic Safety Committee on Thursday voted to defer further debate about the safety of the Middle Street bike lanes until its September meeting.
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SF Chronicle Graphics, Nextzen, OpenStreetMap
A bicyclist was killed in San Francisco on Friday morning after a person inside a parked car opened their door, which hit and ejected the cyclist into oncoming traffic, officials said.
The victim was a 30-year-old man, according to San Francisco police, but officials have not yet identified him. The crash occurred at 7:29 a.m. on Frederick Street near Williard Street at the southeast corner of Golden Gate Park by Kezar Stadium, police said.
Coworkers set up a gofundme site for Devlins wife & family
Officers responding to a report of a vehicle collision involving a bicycle found the cyclist down in the road, police said. He was taken to a hospital where he died.
All parties involved in the incident remained at the scene and are cooperating with investigators, authorities said.
Supervisor Dean Preston, who represents the Cole Valley neighborhood where the crash happened, said police told him that the cyclist was struck by an oncoming vehicle after being ejected from the bicycle when the car door opened.
He said the tragedy underscores the need for San Francisco officials to move as quickly as possible to achieve its Vision Zero goal of reducing traffic deaths. Many more people are biking during the COVID-19 pandemic for exercise and transportation, he said.
The street where the crash occurs does not have a protected bike lane, Preston said.
“This is what folks cycle in fear of, is a collision with a vehicle or a car door opening,” Preston said. “From the information we have, it sounds like that’s the nightmare that occured this morning.”
Anna Bauman is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer.
Email: anna.bauman@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @abauman2
SUNSET PARK – Em Samolewicz, 30, was an artist and a yogi. Her friends and colleagues describe her as a gentle, kind soul; a “magical creature.” Two days ago, she was killed riding her bike and was the 18th cyclist this year in NYC killed by a vehicle. Her friends, neighbors, bikers, and residents of NYC have had enough.
On Monday morning, she was biking on 36th Street and Third Avenue, a few blocks from her home. A person in a parked car suddenly
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Image: Boro Park News | @BoroPark24
Yisroel Schwartz was killed by the driver of a van who ran over him after he was doored by a passenger in a parked car on a busy two-way street in Borough Park, police said.
The 16-year old cyclist, whose name was not initially released by police, was heading northbound on 17th Avenue at around 5:38 p.m. when he was forced into traffic to avoid the open door of a parked car.
The wording of the police report is telling here:
“He swerved to avoid a parked car that was opening it’s [sic] door,” the police report said, suggesting that cars open doors on their own. “The bicyclist struck the door, which caused him to fall to the ground where he was struck by a white 2013 Econoline E350 that was also heading north on 17th Avenue.”
16-year-old Yisroel Schwartz Z"L, Novaminsk Yeshiva Bachur killed in crash in Boro Park on Wednesday.
The operators of both vehicles remained on the scene and were not charge, police said. The teenager, identified by the Daily News as Yisroel Schwartz, was taken to Maimonides Hospital, where he died.
He’s the ninth cyclist killed so far this year, police statistics show. According to the NYPD, just 10 cyclists were killed in all of 2018. Total road fatalities are up 21 percent so far this year, again according to the NYPD.
The cyclist’s death is reminiscent of the killing of Madison Lyden, an Australian tourist who was run over by a truck driver after swerving to avoid a cab that had cut her off to park in a painted bike lane on Central Park West. The death has spurred calls for a protected cycle path on Central Park West — which the city is reportedly planning to create later this year.
A bicyclist was struck and serious injured on 17th Ave & 53rd St, Hatzolah on scene. pic.twitter.com/tfkRhaMXs3
— Boro Park News (@BoroPark24) May 15, 2019
Reported by Gersh Kuntzman for STREETSBLOG NYC
Read original story here
In an exclusive interview with ABC7 News, reporter Luz Pena spoke to the woman driver who opened a car door that caused cyclist Tess Rothstein to swerve into traffic, where she was killed by a truck.
ABC 7 News Bay Area
Why Cyclist drive in the middle of the road.
Dooring can happen when a driver has parked or stopped to exit their vehicle, or when passengers egress from cars, taxis and rideshares into the path of a cyclist in an adjacent travel lane. In many cities across the globe, doorings are among the most common and injurious bike-vehicle incidents.
Many countries are aligned with the Vienna convention which states: "It shall be prohibited to open the door of a vehicle, to leave it open, or to alight from the vehicle without having made sure that to do so cannot endanger other road-users." (Article 24 — Opening of doors).
Most areas have laws that require car users to check for all oncoming traffic including cyclists before opening the door of their vehicle. Some jurisdictions also consider it a traffic code violation if vehicle doors are unnecessarily left open and thus continue to obstruct an adjacent travel lane.
Despite such laws, serious injuries and deaths continue to be caused by occupants opening doors or by bicycle riders riding in the door zone. A 2015 British survey found that 35% of drivers self-reported that they did not check for traffic before opening their vehicle's door to exit.
The problem lies with avoiding this 5 feet (1.5 m) zone, which should be part of the parking zone, when there is a bike lane or the perception by law enforcement or motorists that one should be riding their bike out of the travel lane to not impede faster motorized traffic. In most jurisdictions, a cyclist is considered a driver/operator of a vehicle afforded the same rights as the driver of a motor vehicle; however, in some jurisdictions cyclists are further restricted by laws such as "ride as far right [or left] as practicable."
From a cyclist's point of view, "practicable" includes safety, and safety is noted in many of these laws through exceptions; however, many law enforcement, judges, motoring public and even cyclists stop reading at "as far right." Most motor travel lanes adjacent to a bike lane are only 10–11 feet (3.0–3.4 m) wide, so if a cyclist has to use that lane to avoid hazards in the bike lane, it is too narrow to safely share with passing traffic and he/she should ride in a "lane-control" method as is allowed by most of these ordinances.
In a terrible bike accident in Kotakpura, Faridkot in Punjab, two students died on the spot while another was severely injured. According to media reports, the three students were coming back from their school on a bike on Wednesday afternoon. While they were crossing the market, a car driver opened the door of his car without seeing them coming. In order to avoid collision with the car's door, the student who was riding the bike veered to his right and ended up colliding with a truck instead. Two of the students on the bike died on the spot while the third was badly hurt. Subscribe to my firefighting channel for more videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCd13... Read more at: http://www.newscrunch.in/amp/article/...
There was only about five feet between the line of parked cars and the semitrailer — and no room for error. Into that narrow space rode a bicyclist, a lawyer who was on his way to work at 9 a.m. Friday.
Along the curb, a driver had just parked his white Nissan Altima. He put his hand on the car door and pushed it open.
That small act — the opening of a car door — is something many of us do every day without thinking, and often without looking. But on this morning
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The area near where George E Schilling Jr. died after striking an open car door
A Woodbury man was killed Friday when he crashed his bicycle into the open door of a truck parked on Evergreen Avenue in front of Concord Roof Truss, police said.
George E Schilling Jr., 57, was pronounced dead at Underwood-Memorial Hospital in Woodbury shortly after the accident that occurred around 6:05 p.m.
Police said Schilling had been riding his bicycle eastbound on Evergreen Avenue. The pickup truck was parked on the shoulder of the road.
The vehicle's owner was partially sitting in the truck when the accident happened. Police indicate that the area where the accident happened is not very well llighted.
Evergreen Avenue was closed for two hours while the police processed the scene.
The accident is being investigated by Officer Lauren Catullo and Investigator Gary Krohn.
The fatal crash scene where bicyclist Marcus Ewing was killed.
A biker was killed Friday when a Manhattan driver opened a car door and knocked the cyclist into the path of an oncoming truck, police said.
Marcus Ewing, 27, died at Harlem Hospital a short time after the 8 a.m. accident at E. 120th St. and Third Ave.
The force from the sudden impact launched Ewing, of Harlem, in front of an oncoming Boar's Head truck driven by Robert Nunnenkamp, 51, of Port Jefferson, L.I., sources said.
The driver of the car, 44-year-old Antonio Cobb, and Nunnenkamp remained on the scene.
Marcus Ewing
No criminal charges are expected to be filed. Nunnenkamp was given five citations, including no audible alarm and no driver inspection sheet.
Cobb was issued one summons for unsafely exiting a vehicle.
Both men passed Breathalyzer tests at the scene.
Biking advocacy group Transportation Alternatives said fatalities caused by "dooring" are all-too-common.
"At least three people have been killed so far this year because of it," said Caroline Samponaro, director of bicycle advocacy.
"East Harlem has some of the highest rates of bike commuting," she said, adding that upper Manhattan is "in dire need of quality bike infrastructure."
Photo by Paul Martinka
Brooklyn has a new ghost bike.
Mourners installed the white-painted memorial — one of a growing number of tributes to killed cyclists — at the corner of Atlantic and Washington avenues on Saturday to mark the spot where Jasmine Herron was crushed by a city bus on Sept. 11.
The 23-year-old Ditmas Park resident was remembered as an aspiring artist who often rode her bike from her apartment to Think Coffee in Manhattan where she worked as a barista.
Herron was rolling down Atlantic Avenue when a driver opened her car door at just the wrong moment, knocking Herron into the path of a B45 bus.
Jasmine Herron
Herron died at the scene. Crystal Francis, the driver, attempted to leave the scene, claiming she had nothing to do with the accident. But police officers dragged her back, and she was charged with driving on a suspended license, police said. No charges were filed against the bus driver.
Friends said Herron, a recent graduate of the Alberta College of Art & Design, was planning to return to her native Denver this week. She did return, though for her funeral on Saturday, hours before the Brooklyn vigil, said organizer James Caldwell, who is also president of the 77th Precinct Community Council.
Attendees videotaped the vigil so Herron’s mother Wendy “could see the outpouring of support for her daughter,” Caldwell explained.
Herron’s ghost bike was the 28th to be placed in Brooklyn since the practice began only a few years ago.
A bicyclist trying to avoid a collision was hit and killed when he was run over by an AC Transit bus Wednesday afternoon, police said.
The accident occurred a little after 4:30 p.m. on MacArthur Boulevard near Patterson Avenue in Oakland, said AC Transit spokesman Clarence Johnson.
The cyclist and a bus on the NX line were traveling in the same direction when the cyclist apparently tried to steer away from a car door as it was opening. He ended up striking the door and bounced off it into traffic. The bus drove over him, said Oakland Police Department spokesman Jeff Thomason. The victim was taken by ambulance to a hospital, where he died.
He was identified by the Alameda County Medical Examiner's Office as Erik Fitzpatrick, 35, of Oakland.
The bus driver said she was unaware of what happened and drove for about a block until she was alerted - perhaps by a boarding passenger - that the cyclist was down, Johnson said.
He said the driver was distraught. As is policy, the veteran driver will be tested automatically for drugs and alcohol, but those substances did not appear to be a factor, Thomason said.
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The hospital where Suman Gosh was pronounced dead on arrival
A 38-year-old man fell off his bicycle after hitting a car door that was opened suddenly and was mowed down by a bus on Prince Anwar Shah Road.
Suman Ghosh, an employee of a bookstore at South City Mall, was taken to MR Bangur Hospital where he was declared dead on arrival.
Police said the Behala resident was on his way to work on Tuesday afternoon when the mishap occurred.
Witnesses said Ghosh was cycling at a moderate speed. While he was crossing a stationary Wagon from the right side when the driver suddenly opened the door.
Ghosh rammed into the door and was flung off the cycle. “He fell in front of a speeding Calcutta State Transport Corporation bus on route S-31 (WB04A 5068). The driver slammed the brakes but the front wheels had crushed the man’s head by then,” said Ajay Karmakar, who runs a food kiosk at the Lords Bakery crossing.
“The driver of the bus has been arrested and charged with causing death due to negligence,” said an officer of Lake police station.
“The car driver fled leaving behind the vehicle, which was damaged by a mob.”
Ghosh’s family was shattered by the death of its main earning member. “I do not know how I will break the news to my mother and sister-in-law,” cried Ghosh’s younger brother Sudipto.
The cops cordoned off the accident spot leading to traffic snarls in the area.
Reported by “A Staff Reporter”, The Telegraph, Calcutta, India
Excerpted from: How not to get hit by cars written by Michael Bluejay on bicycle safe.com
A driver opens his door right in front of you. You run right into it if you can't stop in time. If you're lucky, the motorist will exit the car before you hit the door, so you'll at least have the pleasure of smashing them too when you crash, and their soft flesh will cushion your impact. This kind of crash is more common than you might think, and in fact cyclists crashing into parked cars is the #1 kind of car-bike collision in Santa Barbara. (source)We've compiled a list of cyclists killed by running into open car doors.
How to avoid this collision:
Ride to the left. Ride far enough to the left that you won't run into any door that's opened unexpectedly. You may be wary about riding so far into the lane that cars can't pass you easily, but you're more likely to get doored by a parked car if you ride too close to it than you are to get hit from behind by a car which can clearly see you.
State law protects careless drivers but penalizes those they hurt.
Linda Willsey saw the car door opening a split second before it hit her. She was biking down Henry Street, on her way home from work at Community Pharmacy, when someone in a parked car swung open the door without looking.
"I think I yelled 'No!'" says Willsey, as the door hit her right side. "I went into the air and landed on my back."
She was taken to the emergency room with multiple contusions and a fractured vertebra. As she was waiting to have X-rays taken, Madison police officer Jean Papalia paid a visit.
"She said, 'Gee, I'm really sorry, but I have to issue you a citation,'" recalls Willsey. The $10 ticket cited a little-known state law that requires bicyclists passing a parked or standing vehicle to allow "a minimum of three feet" between themselves and the car.
"I don't think I was riding my bike dangerously close," says Willsey. "I was at a reasonable distance." The car, she adds, was not damaged.
Willsey plans to fight the ticket in court next week. She's already received a letter from the motorist's insurance company, citing the state law as a reason to deny any future claims.
“I hadn’t intended to file a claim, But I might now just to show them. ”
Police spokesman Mike Hanson is momentarily dumbfounded when he hears about Willsey's ticket. "Wow," he says finally. "I've never heard of that."
Hanson doubts officers are regularly ticketing bicyclists who get doored. "This would be an obtuse citation."
But he notes that when a person is injured in a traffic accident, police are obligated to ticket someone, unless they get a supervisor's approval. And Hanson can't think of any law the motorist who hit Willsey violated. "There's nothing specific about opening a door."
Michael Rewey, a board member of the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin, disagrees. He thinks the driver should have at least been cited for obstructing traffic.
"If another car got doored, there would have been some form of obstruction ticket," he says. "I don't think there's fair treatment of all modes of transportation."
The Bike Fed may lobby the state Legislature to get the law changed. Willsey has already contacted state Sen. Fred Risser (D-Madison), who wrote back that he, too, had once been hit by a car door while biking. He promised to draft a bill, writing: "At the very least I think cars should show the same 'due care' when opening a car door."
Rewey notes that some Madison bike lanes require bicyclists to pass within three feet of parked cars; in fact, he thinks many newer lanes are too close. "A lot of bike lanes are right on the edge," he says. "If you're in the bike lane and get doored, whose fault is it?"
Certainly not the impatient, barely-paying-attention drivers who fling open their doors.
Vikki Kratz for the Daily Page
The death of a Toronto cyclist, who was killed yesterday after his bike hit a car door that was being opened, is the type of tragedy that is becoming all too familiar on the city's streets, bicycle activists say.
Toronto police say that the 57-year-old man was heading east on his bicycle on Eglinton Ave. W. just west of Avenue Rd. yesterday afternoon around 1 p.m. when the driver of a parked Volvo started to get out of his car.
The cyclist hit the door and flew off his bike before landing on the roadway, where he was struck by a Ford cube van.
The man was taken to hospital where he died of his injuries.
Yvonne Bambrick, assistant coordinator for the Toronto Cyclist Union, said today that while bike accidents are not as frequent as car collisions, the reality is that mishaps with car doors put cyclists at great risk.
"You have to be aware that there are bikes on the road. You must look before you open your door onto the roadway," Bambrick said, adding that cyclists also have to take some responsibility.
“Be aware of the road users around you and act accordingly . . . you can not not pay attention when you are on a bike.”
There have been 12 bicycle-related fatalities in Toronto since 2004, according to Toronto Traffic Services. In 200
There have been 12 bicycle-related fatalities in Toronto since 2004, according to Toronto Traffic Services. In 2007, there were 1,163 motor-related bike collisions reported.
Although the investigation is still ongoing, Sgt. Tim Burrows, communications and media relations officer for Toronto Traffic Services, said that it was likely an accident and it does not look like charges will be laid.
Regardless, police are asking witnesses to call 416-808-1900 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-TIPS (8477).
The family is asking for privacy and police have not released his name.
Precious Yutangco Staff Reporter, The Star
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.
I 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.
Best,
Ted
These images are some of the several images 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 Massachussetts Avenue. They has been posted here with Roberts permission. To see more of Roberts Photographs and learn more about Dana Laird and the controversy surrounding her fatal accident follow the links in the related section below.
