Check for bikes before flinging open car door
Sometimes, the journalistic stars align. So recent emails from Kelowna lawyer Paul Mitchell and Lisa Jaffary of the Central Okanagan Bike Riders Association and Okanagan Similkameen Century Ride (oscr.ca) organizer are a perfect fit.
It’s a timely message with the arrival of spring and the number of cyclists on Okanagan streets in increasing numbers. Cyclists are not only hitting the road but hitting open vehicle doors as well.
“‘Dooring’ is a term used to describe an accident in which an occupant of a parked vehicle opens their door and hits a passing cyclist,” wrote Mitchell.
“Urban cyclists live in constant fear of it: the click of a car door opening just as they ride by, followed by a crash that sends them hurtling off their bike and into the street. These collisions often cause serious injury to the cyclist. As someone who has acted for many injured cyclists, I have seen the devastating injuries these collisions can cause.”
The Toronto Star reports that data provided by the advocacy group Cycle Toronto to Toronto police show that there was a 58.3 per cent increase in the number of doorings between 2014 and 2016.
Last year, there were 209 collisions in Toronto caused by dooring, up from 175 incidents in 2015 and 132 the year before.
“These are life-changing collisions that can result in serious injury or death,” said Jared Kolb, executive director of Cycle Toronto.
He speculated that dooring is happening more often, in part, because more people are choosing to ride a bike for their everyday trips. Because the data only captures incidents reported by police, the figures “should be considered a minimum. Likely the real number is much more than that.”
As a result, Cycle Toronto asked the city to improve cycling infrastructure, including the installation of separate bike lanes on major streets. Cycle Toronto also wants the city to consider removing on-street parking on roads with streetcar tracks to improve bike infrastructure, and banning some taxi and rideshare pickup lanes.
The group is also encouraging education on a technique known as “the Dutch reach” for opening a car door, which involves a driver using their right hand, forcing them to be aware of what’s happening over their left shoulder.
Jaffary agrees and provided a link to an online video that explains the technique: www.outsideonline.com/2116191/howdutch-reach-could-save-lives. The Killer Beez blog by West Kelowna cyclists also reprinted Mitchell’s message at http://kelownakillerbeez.com.
Dooring is a growing problem in B.C. as well, said Mitchell, with more than 370 incidents reported to ICBC during the last five years. Many more likely go unreported. ICBC estimates that one in 14 car crashes involving cyclists are the result of dooring.
In July 2015, Patricia Keenan was killed while cycling in Kelowna when someone suddenly opened the driver’s-side door of a parked car. Despite wearing a helmet, Keenan sustained serious head injuries and died in hospital two days later, leaving behind a 10-year-old son. Colin Stein, director of campaigns for HUB Cycling, says a cyclist is doored almost twice a week in Vancouver, and that the driver is almost always responsible. HUB Cycling (formerly the Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition) is a charitable nonprofit organization, originally established in 1998 to improve cycling conditions in Metro Vancouver.
“That’s everything from getting clipped on your pedal to actually slamming into the door,” Stein recently told CBC News. “That can result in anything from minor to major injuries, even death.”
HUB drives the point home in its Open your eyes, open your door campaign, which pictures a grave-site cross and flowers adorning an open car door.
“It’s about changing behaviour, and that’s difficult when someone has been driving their whole life and is just used to flinging their door open,” said Stein.
HUB advises drivers to check their mirrors and to get in the habit of using their right hand to open the car door.
Other cities have started similar anti-dooring campaigns, noted Mitchell. CheckForBikes.org, based in California, has come up with small sticker (which can be ordered online) to place on the inside of the driver window saying: “Check for bikes.”
“It actually forces them to look behind,” a CheckForBikes.org representative says. “That way, they can get a good view at what’s coming up behind them so that they don’t actually become a doorer.”
If you are a cyclist, there are ways to avoid dooring, said Mitchell.
• Stay out of the “door zone” and ride at least one metre from parked cars.
• Avoid streets with lots of parked cars.
• Take separated bike lanes whenever possible. There are lots of them in Kelowna from the Clement Avenue Rails-to-Trails to Abbott Street Recreation Corridor.
• Choose routes along quieter streets.
• Use lights, even in daytime. In B.C., a cyclist who is in a collision with a motor vehicle can file a claim against the driver’s ICBC insurance, said Mitchell. In dooring cases, a court will generally rule that a person who opens a vehicle door as a vehicle passes is 100 per cent at fault for any resulting collision (Motor Vehicle Act, Section 203). There are several precedentsetting cases in B.C. courts.
The injured cyclist’s damage claim against the driver could include pain and suffering, income loss and care costs. If the cyclist is killed, the surviving family can make a claim under the Family Compensation Act against the driver and ICBC.
“As cycling season is about to commence, please take care out there,” said Mitchell, a personal injury lawyer who has extensive experience with severe injury claims.
For more information on this article or for a confidential discussion of your personal injury claim, you can contact him at 250-869-1115 or send him a confidential email at mitchell@pushormitchell.com.
Visitors will soon have more camping opportunities in the Southern Interior with the construction of 55 new campsites in time for the upcoming camping season.
The new campsites are: Okanagan Lake South Provincial Park near Summerland, eight sites; Badger Lake Rec Site near Heffley, 30 sites; and Scuitto Rec Site near Kamloops, 17 sites.
The new campsites are among the first phase of the 1,900 new campsites announced by Premier Christy Clark in November 2016 as part of the BC Parks Future Strategy, the province’s commitment to public recreation opportunities. Campsite expansion is occurring in all regions of the province, but the majority will be where demand is greatest — in the Okanagan, Kootenays, Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island.
Future BC Parks expansion will be concentrated in the highest-demand, flagship provincial parks, such as Fintry and E.C. Manning in the Okanagan and South Okanagan. Recreation site expansions will take place across the Thomson and Okanagan, targeting high-demand areas while ensuring regional diversity.