Two and a half years ago, I was "doored" into a potentially-fatal spill. The reason I survived with a gash that required thirty stitches and torn muscles and ligaments is that traffic stopped just behind me, and a bystander took it upon himself to get water and bandages and to call the police and ambulance.
The driver, to her credit, checked to see whether I was OK and offered help. (Between her driver's and my health insurance, thankfully, it cost me very little.) And, a few months later, I was nearly doored again on a Sunday afternoon as I pedaled along Metropolitan Avenue in Middle Village--while wearing a high-visibility jacket. I turned back to yell at the driver, who stated the obvious: "I wasn't paying attention."
Other drivers, though, aren't so willing to own up to what they've done. Even if they open the door as you're next to it, they somehow think it's your responsibility to keep them from dooring you.
Richard Silvester falls somewhere between these two categories of drivers. Last July, the UK resident had been eating a sausage roll in his car when he opened his door to shake off crumbs. (I have been the recipient of such morsels, and of showers from motorist dumping their half-finished cups of coffee and bottles of soda.) Unfortunately for Benjamin Dearman-Baker, Silvester's effort at tidiness sent him tumbling from his bike--which he'd been riding at 20MPH--to the pavement.
Although endangering or injuring someone by opening a car door is a misdemeanor offense in the UK, it's still a more serious charge than in most US jurisdictions. Rarer still is the motorist, like Silvester, actually prosecuted for it.
Silvester claimed to have "looked" before opening his door, but admitted he didn't check the blind spots. He might have seen Dearman-Baker in one of them had he used the "Dutch Reach," which is now mandatory in the UK and other countries--and versions of it may soon be mandated in New York and other places in America.
The "Dutch Reach," invented in a country that has about the same ratio of bicycles to people as the US has guns to people, is simple: The driver uses their "far hand" to open the door. In the UK, where drivers travel on the right side of the road, it is their left hand. In most other countries, a driver would open their portals right-handed. Bending in such a way forces drivers to look in those spots immediately behind them, which is where they, more often than not, "don't see" cyclists.
During the past few years, Massachusetts and Illinois have made the "Dutch Reach" part of their drivers' curriculum. In New York City, where I live, the Department of Transportation is trying to promote it among taxi and service-vehicle drivers as the "New York Twist."
It sounds like a dance. Let's hope it catches on and it isn't just a temporary "craze," like an earlier "twist."
It’s easy to keep #BikeNYC safe! Do the New York Twist: before exiting a vehicle, twist your opposite arm to open the door, then turn your head behind you to watch for oncoming bikers. You twist one way to put on your seat belt, now twist another to save lives. #VisionZero pic.twitter.com/8tqllsp9P9
— NYC DOT (@NYC_DOT) April 10, 2023
Oh, and for his part, Richard Silvester has been ordered to pay the costs that result from hitting Benjamin Dearman-Baker when he opened his door to shake off the crumbs from his sausage roll.
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