2010-02-04 - Rider Down/Fatality, Belsize Park (London)

My sister just told me about this, outside my neice's school:

http://www.hamhigh.co.uk/content/camden/hamhigh/news/story.aspx?brand=NorthLondon24&category=Newshamhigh&tBrand=northlondon24&tCategory=newshamhigh&itemid=WeED04%20Feb%202010%2013%3A40%3A24%3A847

Hope the fellow pulls through.

Reminds us not to get forced to the side of the road by traffic.

60 year old getting doored. thats not nice.

Poor sod. fingers crossed!

Christ. Life threatening injuries from getting doored!
There was me expecting to read the usual inside of a left turning truck madness

Poor guy. This is one of the dangers of cycling that not many people take into consideration at all...

poor fella, heal soon sir.

getting doored is a constant nagging worry. omnipresent danger.

lets hope he recovers well.

Have seen a couple of people doored. One demolished a car door and the other was being loaded into an ambulance with a neck brace unconscious.

Cars generally give parked cars over a metre of clearance, cyclists should do so too. You have the right to ensure your own safety.

In one of the car doorings I saw the driver had been sitting in his car with no lights on - it was evening, and he just suddenly opened the door, so there was not any indication that there was anyne in the car - unlike if you had seen the car just park up.

getting doored is a constant nagging worry. omnipresent danger.

lets hope he recovers well.

Agree I hope he has a speedy recovery

if you are worried re car doors consider cycle training

Poor old fella, get well soon

I have been lucky enough to avoid door accidents so far, but after a near miss mid last year, I now ride well out into the road when I am passing cars. I have no doubt that this makes the driver behind me irate, but to be honest, I don't give a damn, it's my safety that matters...

I hope the fella gets by and makes a good recovery, and I hope he is able to get back on a bike again soon after.

Fingers crossed for the bloke.

Ride Wide.

Horrible to read about this, it's easy to forget how something which isn't your fault at all can land you in a pretty sorry state.

Reminds us not to get forced to the side of the road by traffic.

Correct, although doorings are a type of collision in which the occupant of a stationary vehicle is generally at fault, not the cyclist. It's obviously good if they ride more towards the centre line, but in an ideal world they should be fine even riding close to car doors. Best wishes to the rider.

I have been lucky enough to avoid door accidents so far, but after a near miss mid last year, I now ride well out into the road when I am passing cars.

And you are right to do so; sadly so many cyclists feel they have 'get out of the way' of motorised vehicles and in doing so put themselves in very dangerous positions; as illustrated by this very sad story. As Hippy says, ride wide. We can only hope the man pulls through.

Get well soon, chap.

Opening a car door dangerously is a specific criminal offence. I prosecuted a bloke who doored a naval rating, who was just riding to his ship. The guy tried to suggest the cyclist was late and thus riding quickly. The rating pointed out that he was wearing his white navy uniform, and it was June -- turning up sweaty isn't the done thing. The defendant maintained he looked in his mirrors, and the cyclist wasn't there. I asked him how far he could see in his mirrors, and he came up with some ridiculous distance, 60 metres or something. I asked him how much of a gap there was between him looking in his mirror and opening his door. "Half a second". rapid surreptitious tapping on mobile phone's calculator "So, you're saying the complainant was cycling at 97.6 metres per second, which is....more than 2000mph?". Convicted, needless to say.

The door hit him in the neck, and chipped one of the bony protruberances off one of his cervical vertebrae. He was extremely lucky.

Ride wide, indeed.

The rider that was doored has sinced died. RIP

RiP
Very sad

That's terrible. RIP.

we also have to keep in mind that its not only parked cars that can be a problem. I narrowly avoided getting doored while pulling up to a red light as a car of people in front decided to re-arrange thier seating positions while waiting at the lights... they basically pushed me into oncoming traffic as i came past!

Awful.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23803135-pensioner-dies-after-knocked-off-bicycle-in-camden.do

How sad, RIP

fuck fuck fuck

appalling news

please people ride wide and consider cycle training

He was taken to hospital but later died. It is not known whether he was wearing a helmet.
What has that got to do with it?

I have been lucky enough to avoid door accidents so far, but after a near miss mid last year, I now ride well out into the road when I am passing cars. I have no doubt that this makes the driver behind me irate

I do the same but often get flashed by drivers behind, even though I try to top 20mph. If possible with only a coupld of cars I slow down to let em pass before heading through a carred lane. The fact is you end up risking it at some time.

1/2 second to do 60 m

that makes 120 m/s

over a third the speed of sound (340 m/s)

What has that got to do with it?

I do the same but often get flashed by drivers behind, even though I try to top 20mph. If possible with only a coupld of cars I slow down to let em pass before heading through a carred lane.

After cycle training i try to consider this as acknowledgement that the car has seen me, so its a good thing.

My safety is not to be compromised to save a fucking idiot 2 seconds on their overall journey time, they can wait, this is about assertive cycling, taking your place, knowing you have every right to be there, and as and when it is safe to do so you let cars go past.

You can actually control how traffic responds around you, it also helps to keep making eye contact with the driver behind, so they are aware that you know they wish to get by.

After cycle training i try to consider this as acknowledgement that the car has seen me, so its a good thing.

My safety is not to be compromised to save a fucking idiot 2 seconds on their overall journey time, they can wait, this is about assertive cycling, taking your place, knowing you have every right to be there, and as and when it is safe to do so you let cars go past.

You can actually control how traffic responds around you, it also helps to keep making eye contact with the driver behind, so they are aware that you know they wish to get by.

Totally, it's all about people. Traffic (which of course doesn't just mean motor traffic) is a social environment. Pedestrians and cyclists are traffic. 'The car saw me/didn't see me' is something people say all too often, though--it's worth checking oneself to avoid this.

I wouldn't necessarily say 'control'--it's about negotiating space with other people. Hence, as you say, plenty of eye contact, not to control them, but to reach an understanding with them.