A clip from a great film on this subject.
What is is with bikers riding right past the driver’s door on a car that has just pulled up and parked? Do you not know what happens next? I actually check to see that I’m not opening my door into a biker too clueless to not anticipate in heavily biked areas, but I’d guess I’m one in a million here.
Sorry you were hurt, yojimbo, but this sounds like it’s kind of your fault, too.
WAG: The law puts the burden on the driver of the car to open doors only when safe to do so.
I try to scan all parked cars for people in the driver’s seat, but you can’t always spot them. And people can sit in their cars for minutes before exiting, so it’s not always a car that has just pulled in.
The responsibility is squarely on the driver to check before opening a door into traffic. But a prudent biker rides defensively, even if that means taking up a travel lane as needed.
Well no actually it wasn’t. He was illegally parked in a bus lane which is also a bike lane. I didn’t see it pull in, it was there when I got onto the street. He had a head rest on his seat so I couldn’t see his head. What should I do, get off the bike when I pass every car? He opened the door when I was about 2 feet
away from it.
You may be right in general but in this specific case I could have done nothing else to minimise my risk other than not cycle at all.
Legally, she’s not even right in general.
You decided to get out of bed and move about. Accept the consequences!
Fair enough.
Seconded on all counts. Good luck, yojimbo! Hope you feel all better, and soon.
Just back from dropping down to him. He offered me a grand and will cover anything that comes up in the near future related to the accident. I don’t think much will happen in the future. The wound is healing nicely and the stiffness is all but gone.
Good result AFAIC.
Well done, yojimbo.
That popping sound you all hear is Kimmy_Gibbler’s pro-attorney, pro-litigation bubble being popper because two people were able to come to an amicable agreement without a couple of lawyers getting a piece of the action.
If both sides are happy with the agreement, then it’s hard to say it’s anything less than a good result.
Uh… no. I think I even said he was at the stage where a demand is made and either the other party ponies up (usually in exchange for a release) or it proceeds to a suit (or the party just drops it). Hate to burst your bubble, but what yokimbo did was prosecuting a suit and settling it. You don’t need an attorney to sue. And of course, yojimbo planned on retaining one if the car owner told him to pound sand.
One thing that does confuse me: someone upthread chastised me that the difference between yojimbo and a represented party was that yojimbo was only looking for a small amount to compensate actual damages (which he valued above at about 400 euros) unlike those mercenaries intent on taking people to the cleaners. Now I see he got offered 1000 euros, with the option to get more if anything else arises. Yojimbo, you do plan to correct his estimate and return the unnecessary 600 euros, no?
Good on both of you. Glad to hear you’re feeling better!
Sometimes I wish my bike accident was someone else’s fault (I went down when my front tire slipped in water in a dip in the road while going around a corner). Four years later and I’m still in constant, often agonizing, debilitating pain. In spite of years of on-and-off PT, it managed to worsen from bursitis in my rotator cuff, to secondary osteoarthritis in my cervical spine. So consider yourself very lucky!
ETA: re: Kimmy_Gibbler’s point
Nope.
I told him my costs as documented in the OP and he said, “OK make it a grand as I laid you up for a few days and you have a nasty wound and I’ll also cover any other medical costs that may come up”
Well, as far a bike accidents go, being doored by a sucker doesn’t seem so bad.
He said “Anything over that is a bonus AFAIC.” In other words, he was not excluding any ‘compensatory’ payment if voluntarily offered - just not demanding it, and certainly not going for broke via the courts, which many people were urging him to do.
If Irish law is anything like the law in England and Wales, I suspect the driver may be in breach by not calling the cops (mandatory in E&W if any party is injured); in fact I vaguely recall from living there that the cops should be called for any road accident in Ireland. So he got away lightly too.
yoj glad you got that sorted. So, fancy putting the extra €600 on a trip to Malaysia next year…? 
I’m glad it all worked and he stood by his word.
Good for you. I make a living with personal injury suits as part of what I do, and if it isn’t worth it to you, then it isn’t, and leave it there. Show up, show the guy the bills and the scar and then go out and buy each other a round.