Deadly risk to cyclists from ‘car-dooring’

DRIVERS have been warned to look for cyclists before getting out of their vehicles after eight were killed by opening car doors in just five years.

Figures from the Department for Transport show ‘car- dooring’ also led to 3,108 injuries between 2011 and 2015, 2,009 of them cyclists.

The Cycling UK charity believes the real figure could be much higher with many incidents not logged by police who may not always be called.

Now it has called for drivers to follow the example of the Netherlands by doing the ‘Dutch reach’.

This is where drivers open the door with their left hand rather than their right – or the opposite way round for passengers – meaning they need to turn and check over their shoulder at the same time.

Last year Sam Boulton, from Coalville, Leicestershire, was killed on his 26th birthday after a taxi passenger opened her door on to the road without looking, pushing the teacher off his bike and into the path of a van.

Taxi driver Farook Bhikhu was let off with a fine after being found guilty of permitting a passenger to open a vehicle ‘ so as to injure or endanger a person’. Under current law, if you open a door and injure someone you could be fined up to £1,000 – even if the person is killed.

Speaking after his son’s death Mr Boulton’s father, Jeff, said: ‘It’s heart-breaking that an offence which has ended a life and caused untold trauma for my family be treated so lightly under current legislation.

‘Until we have an appropriate offence in law, I call on the Government to start investigating how they can better educate and train drivers about the dangers of “car- dooring” and the techniques which will prevent it from happening.’ In 2014, Robert Hamilton, a retired lecturer in his 70s, was killed when he hurtled into a door which had been opened in his path. Driver Joanne Jackson was fined £305 for the offence.

And Transport Secretary Chris Grayling also knocked a cyclist off his bike after opening a car door outside Parliament in October last year.

Yesterday, Cycling UK chief executive Paul Tuohy said he had written to transport minister Jesse Norman about raising public awareness. The charity wants a change in the law to create an offence called ‘death or serious injury through negligently opening a car door’.

Mr Tuohy said: ‘Some people seem to see car-dooring as a bit of a joke but it’s not and can have serious consequences.

‘Cycling UK wants to see greater awareness made about the dangers of opening your car door negligently and people to be encouraged to look.’

AA president Edmund King said: ‘We know car-dooring can be dangerous so drivers, passengers and those on two wheels need to be alert to the dangers.’