Dooring sounds quaint until you have lived through it. A parked driver flicks a latch, a door swings into a narrow bike lane, and a cyclist has a fraction of a second to decide between an impact with sharp metal or a swerve into live traffic. In a typical week handling bicycle crash cases, doorings show a repeatable pattern, from the physics of how bodies and bikes collide with hinged doors to the defenses insurers trot out. The consequences range from broken collarbones to spinal cord trauma, and when the injuries are catastrophic, the legal and medical steps in the first days can decide financial stability for years.
Why doorings are uniquely dangerous
Most drivers picture a door opening into empty air. Cyclists measure doors differently, in “dooring zone” lengths. A modern car door extends roughly 30 to 45 inches from the vehicle, which wipes out all of a painted bike lane if it sits adjacent to street parking. At urban speeds of 10 to 18 miles per hour for riders, a door that swings in a single second creates a closing distance that cannot be avoided without either a direct collision or an evasive maneuver into traffic. Even a low-speed door strike resets the rider’s center of gravity and tends to pivot the body over the handlebars, which is why we see so many acromioclavicular separations, wrist fractures, and facial trauma. When the rider swerves, the secondary collision is often worse, particularly if the adjacent lane carries buses or delivery trucks.
The other factor, often overlooked, is attention. Drivers and passengers focus on exiting, not scanning. Many do not use the Dutch Reach, a habit where you open the door with the far hand, naturally turning your torso to check the mirror and blind spot. Without that rotation, human vision narrows and cyclists in the mirror’s edge go unseen.
The legal framework that actually decides these cases
Dooring claims sound simple, but insurance adjusters exploit nuances. The controlling law usually lives in state traffic codes and municipal ordinances. Across most states, it is illegal to open a vehicle door unless it is reasonably safe to do so and can be done without interfering with traffic. Courts have interpreted “traffic” to include bicycles, even where there is no protected lane. In cities with specific anti-dooring ordinances, the language is even clearer. I frequently cite statutes that place primary responsibility on the person who opens the door, not the driver seated at the wheel. That distinction matters when a rideshare passenger flings a door into a rider, because then the rideshare company’s coverage often enters the conversation.
Comparative negligence is the other battleground. Insurers argue that the cyclist could have ridden farther left, reduced speed, or anticipated the door. In modified comparative states, if a jury tags the rider at more than 50 or 51 percent fault, recovery can vanish. In pure comparative states, the award reduces by the rider’s fault percentage. We prepare early to counter these arguments with roadway measurements, door swing distances, and video stills showing the location of parked vehicles relative to the bike lane stripe. In many dooring cases, cyclists had no lawful option to ride farther left without entering a lane marked for vehicular traffic, which flips comparative allegations on their head.
Catastrophic injuries in dooring crashes
The injuries that reshape a life tend to follow recognizable patterns. Orthopedically, I see comminuted fractures of the clavicle requiring plating, displaced rib fractures that compromise breathing, and lumbar fractures from lateral torsion at impact. Head injuries range from concussions with post-concussive syndrome to traumatic brain injuries that impair executive function. Maxillofacial trauma is common, especially when the rider’s face meets a door edge or concrete. In rare but devastating cases, a swerve leads to a secondary collision with a moving vehicle, producing spinal cord injuries, incomplete tetraplegia, or amputation.
Catastrophic, in a claim context, does not simply mean severe. It means the injury has long-term or permanent consequences: the need for attendant care, lifetime medication, durable medical equipment, or a vocational shift that diminishes earning capacity. When we classify a case as catastrophic, the work plan changes. We engage life care planners to project future costs, and we document every anticipated replacement of mobility equipment and surgical hardware. For a 38-year-old software engineer with a C6 incomplete injury after a door-swerve into a bus, the life care plan included pressure-relief cushions that must be replaced every 2 to 3 years, a power-assist wheelchair to preserve shoulder function, and home modifications to restore independence. The output of that planning becomes the backbone of damages.
First 72 hours: medical and legal moves that matter
Medical triage comes first. Doorings often produce “walk-away” injuries that hide their worst effects. A rider might stand, exchange information, and decline an ambulance, only to develop intracranial bleeding or compartment syndrome overnight. If you can stand, still go to the ER the same day. Tell the provider it was a bicycle crash, not just a fall. That label triggers trauma protocols and imaging more reliably.
From the legal side, evidence decays quickly. Doorings are urban events, and cities overwrite traffic camera footage in days. Nearby storefronts may delete security footage within a week. I advise clients to preserve the bike without repairs, and to bag the helmet. The crushed foam often shows the angle of impact, and transfer marks from door edges can be distinctive. Skid marks in a dooring are rare, but scuffs along the door’s trailing edge can link to handlebar ends or brake levers.
Photograph the scene with distances. A simple method works: align your phone camera parallel to the curb, capture the parked car, the stripe of the bike lane, and a tape measure showing the distance from the curb to the stripe and from the stripe to the door edge. Those measurements undercut later claims that the cyclist had room to avoid the door. If police respond, ask for the officer’s name and report number and request that the “opening door into traffic” statute be noted. When the at-fault party is a passenger exiting a rideshare or taxi, ask the driver to show the active trip screen and take a photo. This can preserve the timestamp and carrier identity before the driver logs out.
Insurance coverage in a dooring, practically speaking
Coverage is pieced together from several sources. The person who opened the door is usually primarily liable, and their auto insurance often covers their negligence while “occupying” the vehicle, which includes entering and exiting. When the door-opener is a passenger in a rideshare car during an active ride, the rideshare accident lawyer in me taps corporate policies. Many rideshare companies provide third-party liability coverage in seven figures during active trips. Sorting out when the trip is active becomes an evidentiary issue, hence the value of that trip screen photo.
If the driver is uninsured or coverage is disputed, a cyclist’s own auto policy may step in through uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage. Cyclists without cars sometimes live with someone whose policy can extend UM/UIM benefits to household members. Health insurance will cover medical treatment but may have a lien on recovery. Medicare and Medicaid have strict reimbursement rules, with penalties for noncompliance. This is where a personal injury attorney earns their keep, coordinating lien resolution so that settlement funds do not evaporate under statutory clawbacks.
The coverage picture grows more complex when a dooring triggers a secondary collision with a commercial vehicle. A bus accident lawyer or delivery truck accident lawyer would recognize that the bus or truck insurer will look for any reason to point blame at the cyclist. We preserve dashcam footage by sending a spoliation letter within days. If the truck is an 18-wheeler, federal motor carrier regs can determine record retention and driver log access. Even when the commercial vehicle did nothing wrong, its presence affects damages and may make a venue more attentive to safety issues near curb lanes.
Liability proof: what actually persuades adjusters and juries
I rarely rely on eyewitness memories alone. The geometry of the scene carries more weight. Photos that show a painted bike lane flush with a line of parallel parking create a tight frame. When we model door swing with the manufacturer’s specifications, it becomes clear that a cyclist riding within the lane as marked had no path out. On one case, a passenger opened a rear door of a rideshare SUV into a narrow lane. We produced stills from a store camera that captured the rider’s shadow, the door angle, and the timecode. The city’s traffic signal camera showed brake lights from a following car at the moment of impact, corroborating that the cyclist had nowhere to go. Faced with a physical story rather than opinions, the insurer folded on liability.
Comparative negligence defenses hinge on speed and positioning. Strava data, when a rider consents to share it, can be probative. It can show steady speed below 15 mph on a corridor with slower traffic, which contradicts “reckless” labels. Helmet damage supports head strike claims, but I never let a case rise or fall on helmet use itself because helmet laws vary and most jurisdictions do not allow nonuse as a fault factor. When a defense expert argues the rider should have hugged the left side of the lane, we return to the MUTCD and local lane width standards. If a standard lane is 10 or 11 feet with a 2 to 3-foot door zone, a cyclist cannot safely hold a line that gives cars a three-foot passing clearance while also avoiding the door zone. The numbers force a conclusion that infrastructure set the trap.
Damages in catastrophic dooring cases
Damages break into categories, but the art lies in connecting them to real life. Medical bills are the start, not the end. A catastrophic injury lawyer will build a narrative that runs forward. If there is a spinal cord injury, we budget for bowel and bladder supplies, skin integrity care, and replacements of cushions, braces, and wheelchairs. If there is a traumatic brain injury, we catalog cognitive therapy, neuropsych testing, caregiver training for family, and even app-based supports because those small tools keep people employed.
Lost earnings are not just missed paychecks. For a carpenter who loses wrist strength after a scaphoid fracture and fusion, the loss lies in overtime, union raises, and the foreman track that disappears when grip strength imposes an unsafe limitation. For a software professional with post-concussive executive dysfunction, the loss can be missed promotion windows and a realistic shift to less cognitively demanding roles.
Non-economic damages require careful grounding. Pain is human, so we show the details. The rider who used to commute by bike but now panics at street corners. The parent who cannot lift a toddler without a stab of shoulder pain. Juries understand those specifics better than any abstract pain scale. Catastrophic injuries often include loss of consortium, which is not a windfall but recognition that marriages and family dynamics strain under the weight of care.
Special patterns: rideshare, taxis, and commercial curb lanes
Doorings cluster near popular drop-off zones. Sports arenas, theater districts, hospital entrances, and bar strips create a predictable pattern: cars drift to the curb, passengers exit with attention on phones, and cyclists pass through tight corridors. Rideshare policies typically urge drivers to pull to the curb and may instruct passengers to Georgia Motorcycle Accident Lawyer weinsteinwin.com exit on the curb side. In practice, street design does not always make that possible. When a passenger exits into a travel lane, the negligence analysis looks at both the passenger and the driver. Drivers who stop double-parked in a travel lane outside a bike lane place exiting passengers directly in the path of cyclists. I look for app logs indicating whether the driver accepted a pickup or drop-off where stopping was unlawful. Some corporate policies prohibit active pickups in bus lanes, which opens an angle for negligent entrustment or policy violations that swing leverage in settlement talks.
Commercial corridors with frequent loading produce another category of doorings, especially with delivery vehicles using sliding doors that open into narrow lanes. The improper lane change accident attorney side of me spends time on the upstream behavior. If a delivery van merged into a curb lane without signaling, then halted and opened a door into a cyclist, fault traces back to that lane change as well as the door opening.
How related practice areas intersect
Bicycle doorings do not exist in isolation. The same adjusters handle car crash claims and will often copy-paste arguments from a rear-end collision attorney’s playbook. We meet them on familiar ground with physics and roadway standards. Drunk driving accident lawyer work informs cases where the door-opener had been drinking, often after a night out. Pedestrian accident attorney experience translates cleanly, because both pedestrians and cyclists depend on drivers to respect curbside movement. When a motorcycle collides after a cyclist swerves to avoid a door, the motorcycle accident lawyer will focus on closing speed and sight lines, and we collaborate to build a unified story.
Truck accident lawyer and 18-wheeler accident lawyer disciplines bring in federal regs and spoliation practice, which we apply whenever a secondary collision involves a commercial carrier. Auto accident attorney and car crash attorney experience covers claim valuation and negotiation pacing. A personal injury lawyer who has tried head-on collision or hit and run accident cases knows how to handle dispute-heavy liability narratives. Even distracted driving accident attorney strategies come into play if the door-opener admits they were looking at a phone when they exited.
Dealing with police reports and gaps
Police reports in doorings vary in quality. Some officers treat them as minor incidents if the cyclist rides away, and they may not note the key statute. I have seen reports that misidentify the party at fault or list “no injury” despite later hospitalization. These are not fatal to a claim. We correct the record with supplemental statements, medical records, and photographs. Body-worn camera footage can capture roadside admissions by the door-opener like “I didn’t look, I just opened it,” which is gold in settlement talks. If the report cites the cyclist for riding outside the bike lane, we point to exceptions in the law that allow cyclists to leave the lane to avoid hazards, which includes opening doors.
Medical documentation that stands up under scrutiny
Emergency records often say little beyond “bike versus door.” We work with physicians to document mechanism of injury, because future causation fights hang on those words. For example, an orthopedist linking a labral tear to a forward flexion and abduction mechanism during a handlebar strike helps defeat defense arguments that the shoulder injury was degenerative. Neurology notes that anchor a post-traumatic headache diagnosis within weeks of the crash carry weight, as do vestibular therapy records for balance deficits after a mild TBI. In catastrophic cases, a rehabilitation medicine specialist should synthesize the long-term functional picture, not just the orthopedic fix.
Settlement dynamics and when to file suit
Insurers like to price doorings as low-stakes events. Early offers often ignore future care and treat pain as a temporary inconvenience. Bringing a life care plan to the table changes that math. Still, timing matters. You need to reach a point of maximum medical improvement or have credible projections for future surgeries. Filing suit makes sense when liability is contested, when damages are high, or when the carrier drags its feet. Venues differ in how they treat cyclists. Urban juries familiar with bikes tend to be receptive to infrastructure problems and driver responsibilities. In suburban venues, voir dire must explore attitudes about cyclists “not belonging on the road,” and it may be worth retaining a human factors expert to explain attention limits and how mirror geometry hides approaching riders.
Practical safety and policy measures, learned the hard way
I ride, and I litigate. Those dual roles make me both a safety advocate and a realist. Painted bike lanes next to parking create conflict. Protected lanes with physical buffers reduce doorings markedly because a striped buffer of even 2 to 3 feet pushes riders out of the swing arc. Cities that enforce anti-dooring ordinances and that ticket for opening into traffic see cultural shifts. Driver education programs that teach the Dutch Reach help. Rideshare apps that nudge passengers to curbside exits and warn about bike lanes near drop-off zones are improving, but features mean little without accountability.
Personal choices matter, though they do not absolve negligent door-openers. I advise clients to scan through and past the parked car line, not just at the nearest door handle. A small mirror can help, particularly in corridors with many curb cuts. Helmets reduce some head injury severity, but catastrophic outcomes can happen with or without one. Bright clothing and daytime running lights improve conspicuity; they do not immunize a rider from a blind door.
How a bicycle accident attorney builds a catastrophic dooring claim
The workflow has a rhythm. We start with preservation: letters to the at-fault party, the rideshare carrier if involved, nearby businesses, and city transportation departments for camera footage. We document geometry, as noted earlier, and gather medical records early. If the injury is catastrophic, we retain a life care planner within the first 60 to 90 days to begin baseline assessments. For vocational loss, we engage an economist who can model lost earnings with and without disability accommodations.
We anticipate defenses. If the insurer will claim you were outside the bike lane, we prove why the lane was unsafe at the time, often with aerial imagery and parking occupancy data. If they will argue you were speeding, we gather ride data and witness statements from drivers who saw the impact. If there is a hint of alcohol use on either side, we obtain toxicology reports or bar receipts. The case file grows into a technical story that a jury can follow without specialized knowledge.
Frequently asked, briefly answered
- What if the car was stopped legally and I hit the door, am I still protected? Most likely yes. Laws generally prohibit opening a door unless it is reasonably safe and does not interfere with traffic, which includes cyclists. Legal parking does not excuse unsafe door opening. The passenger opened the door, not the driver. Who pays? Often the driver’s auto policy covers passengers while occupying the vehicle. If it was a rideshare during an active trip, the rideshare’s liability policy may respond. I did not call the police. Is my case ruined? No. Evidence can fill the gaps. Medical records, photos, and witness statements carry weight. But report the crash as soon as possible. I swerved and was hit by a car. Is that still a dooring case? Yes, legally the door opening can be the proximate cause of the secondary collision. Both parties may be involved in the claim. I do not own a car. Do I have insurance coverage? Possibly. UM/UIM coverage can extend from a household member’s policy, and health insurance covers treatment. An attorney can audit coverage sources you might not expect.
The human side, and why representation matters
The first call I took on a catastrophic dooring involved a nurse who commuted by bike to 12-hour shifts. A passenger exiting a rideshare outside a hospital swung a door into her lane at dawn. She flew left, fractured her pelvis, and after surgery faced a long rehabilitation that threatened her job. The rideshare company initially argued the trip had ended 90 seconds before impact and denied coverage. We pulled security footage from the hospital, recovered app logs through discovery, and matched timestamps. The life care plan documented expected hip arthritis and a future joint replacement. Settlement arrived the week before trial, large enough to cover care, home modifications, and lost earning capacity. She returned to nursing in a different role with less time on her feet.
That is a single story, but the pattern repeats. Without aggressive evidence preservation and a realistic damages model, catastrophic dooring cases are undervalued. With them, accountability becomes possible, and clients have a fair shot at rebuilding.
If you are reading this after a dooring, focus on your health, then preserve what you can: photos, names, the bike, the helmet, the rideshare screen if relevant. When you are ready, speak with a bicycle accident attorney who understands how these cases intersect with the broader world of personal injury law. The same skills that guide a car accident lawyer, auto accident attorney, or pedestrian accident attorney apply here, with the added nuance of infrastructure and cycling dynamics. Done well, the process not only compensates the injured, it nudges streets toward designs that prevent the next door from becoming an ambulance ride.