Chicago Accident and Injury Lawyer Blog

You park your car and casually fling your car door open into a bike lane. This nonchalant conduct can often cause serious, even life-threatening, injuries to an innocent bicyclist. Called "dooring," drivers and bicyclists must take steps to prevent such occurrences as Spring approaches and more and more bicyclists take to the streets.

I recently read Jon Hilkevitch's article, "Bikers call for state to count 'dooring' accidents," in this week's Chicago Tribune. It is a must read for bicyclists and motor vehicle operators. There, he addresses how dooring accidents, while potentially one of the most dangerous threats to bicyclists, are not tracked by the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT). This is concerning because dooring has become a serious safety threat to cyclists, with one informal study showing that "more than half the people who bike on streets have been doored at least once."

Hilkevitch further reports: "From 2005 through 2009, there was an average of more than 3,500 crashes each year between vehicles and bicyclists in Illinois, resulting in 18 to 27 cyclists killed and more than 3,300 injured annually, according to IDOT statistics."

Dooring accidents, according to the Active Transportation Alliance, are "the most prevalent threat to on-street cyclists." Perhaps the need for further legislation in this area is warranted. The Illinois legislature recently amended Section 11-703 of the vehicle code to authorize police officers to issue citations to motorists who "in a reckless manner, drive the motor vehicle unnecessarily close to, toward, or near a bicyclist, pedestrian, or a person riding a horse or driving an animal-drawn vehicle." Depending on the severity of the injury, a person convicted under this statute could be found guilty of a Class A misdemeanor or a Class 3 felony.

The Law Offices of Jeffrey J. Kroll has seen too many dooring accidents that have caused devastating injuries. We have represented many Illinois bicyclists who have been injured by a driver’s negligence.