How do you avoid car door danger?

The Dooring Alert System (DAS) is a new gizmo that aims to tackle car door danger. Flashing lights fitted inside a car's rear window and wing mirror alert the approaching cyclist that a door may open into their path.

The device will soon be available for pre-order via Kickstarter, but the immediate solution to the peril of opening car doors is unlikely to be technological.

When low tech is best: Follow the three foot rule

Doors opened into the road by car drivers and passengers who have failed to look have potentially fatal consequences for cyclists. Given how much is at stake for cyclists, however, it is in the interests of those on two wheels to look out for themselves. Cyclists can and should follow the three feet rule when passing parked cars. Leaving a door width between yourself and a line of parked cars is the only way to guarantee you are not at risk of being knocked off your bike in this way.

Top tip for drivers

Those in cars have a legal responsibility to look carefully before opening a door into the road. Drivers can and should open the door with the hand furthest away from the door. This forces them to look over their shoulder at traffic coming from behind. In the Netherlands this technique forms part of the driving test.

Car door crashes and the law

A passenger in my car (who has fully comp car insurance on their own car) opened my car’s passenger door into the path of a cyclist causing injury. Who is liable in the case of claim for personal injury?

In most cases the other party will pursue your insurance company as the passenger was in your vehicle and your car is insured for this purpose. Your insurance company would be obliged to settle the claim. You or your insurer might then chose to pursue the passenger of your vehicle, however the passenger’s own comprehensive policy is unlikely to pay out as it is ordinarily restricted to the insured vehicle, not the insured person. In some circumstances a person may hold a comprehensive insurance policy that covers them for any vehicle; however these policies are rare in recent years.

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