A West Hollywood cyclist was doored on Santa Monica Boulevard Sunday morning after a passing driver swung open a car door directly into the rider’s path, sending him to the pavement between two vehicles near 8275 Santa Monica Blvd., across from Hamburger Mary’s.
The call came in around 11:17 a.m. Scanner traffic out of the West Hollywood Sheriff’s station logged it as a 901C — traffic collision with injuries — bicyclist versus two vehicles. Units responded Code 3. L.A. County Fire was en route.
A witness who gave only her first name, Daphne, told WEHOonline she was pulling up to a nearby valet when it happened. “He literally just cut through,” she said. “This guy was opening the door, and there’s no way he could have seen the biker try to cut through the two cars.” She described the rider as splitting the lane between parked and moving vehicles when the door swung open. He flipped and went down.
A West Hollywood Sheriff’s deputy confirmed the basic sequence at the scene. “He was riding westbound, and a door opened up and that’s when the crash happened,” the deputy told us.
The red road bike took the brunt of it. Photos from the scene show the front wheel mangled off the frame, the back wheel bent, and the bike wedged against the side of a gray sedan with what appeared to be significant body damage to the car’s door panel. The bicycle, a vintage-style red and white road bike, was essentially destroyed. It’s kinda crazy when you look the door frame being bent like it is. The force of the impact must have been intense for that to have happened.
L.A. County Fire’s Engine 574 and additional units responded. Firefighters treated the rider on the sidewalk in front of Cafe Woods, just steps from the crash site. He was conscious and seated while crews worked on him. A deputy at the scene said he was expected to be okay.
The crash happened in a stretch of Santa Monica Boulevard that the City recently targeted for safety upgrades, including the installation of green-painted bike lanes. Sunday’s incident is a reminder of how quickly things can go wrong, where cyclists share the road with parked cars, moving traffic, and valet zones.
Dooring — when a driver or passenger opens a vehicle door into the path of an oncoming cyclist — is one of the leading causes of bicycle injuries in urban areas. California law requires drivers to check for cyclists before opening a door, but enforcement is rare, sadly, for all involved, crashes like Sunday’s are not.
Re Dooring IS avoidable
Lane Splitting between a travel lane and parking lane is not ‘lane splitting’.
Filtering up on the right if any moving traffic is dangerous as hell and sets up right hooks when coming up on the traffic’s blind side – it is ill advised.
Passing on the right is illegal in California – CVC and bicycle etiquette says pass on the left.
Riding in a door zone is putting way too much trust on parked drivers or passengers to NOT open a door in front of you.
Have they ever done a study of how many bicyclists ride their bikes for recreation as opposed to how many bicyclists ride their bikes to get back-and-forth to work?
And then I wonder if they would ask those bicyclists who ride for recreation if they use cars to get back-and-forth to work?
What I deduct from this is that the city should have bike lanes on SMB rather than the ridiculous idea of gridlocking Fountain and eliminating residential parking (especially when the council allowed developers to have inadequate parking in their buildings)
It might actually make more sense given that we can find some places to create off street parking (parking lots) on Santa Monica, and then get rid of the parking on the street. We have a huge, but largely empty parking lot at Crescent Heights and the parking structure on Kings Road is under parked (I don’t blame anyone for not using the Robo-Garage behind City Hall). But given that retail may not have much of a future your suggestion should be given serious consideration.
Lane splitting is legal. Bikes are riding to the right as they are expected to. In Denmark people open their doors with their right hands. This enables them to look back into any approaching bicycle traffic before opening the door. As a cyclist, I worry about being doored, and ride far enough left to be out of reach of most doors. I also stay in Sharrow defined spaces, which are painted to be left of the door zone. Me on a bicycle may be a short term nuisance for a motorist, but I’m taking much less space, using fewer resources,… Read more »
A driver can look and think it’s safe to open his door but not calculate how fast a cyclist is going and still cause an accident. Arrogant cyclists are very common thinking the laws don’t apply to them, like running through red lights, and not taking basic precautions like keeping their speed down just in case something unexpected does happen.
Actually, most of the cyclists I ride with are courteous and cautious. Many of us have ridden the cal AIDS ride/AIDSLifecycle multiple times and place a high premium on safety. As in most other segments of society, the jerks are a small and unfortunately memorable bit of the total. It is unfortunate that many motorists assume that cyclists are arrogant jerks. Most of us are not.
It is everyone’s responsibility to be aware of their surroundings. I am sure the bike coalition will use this as an example that they are under attack. When will West Hollywood begin to teach cyclists they must follow the rules as much as everyone else is required.
Ive been doored multiple times in West Hollywood. No one ever looks when they rapdily swing open their doors and as a bicyclist its really hard to see into cars to see if someone is sitting there ready to swing their doors open. I think the City should install signs telling drivers to check before opening their doors and really we need safer wider bike lanes. Cars take up so much space. Its time to give some space back to people.
There comes a time when there are so many signs most people stop reading any of them.
Stop riding bikes. It’s a nuisance to normal people – you know, the ones who drive cars. We aren’t Dutch.
If you can’t handle it, then get a Waymo or move to Palm Springs.
The opposite!
That’s hilarious, WeHo Driver – NOT being sarcastic!
I stopped riding bicycles on public streets when I moved to SoCal. Traffic felt too dense for my safety – drivers can’t readily see cyclists, and neither cyclists nor motorists have space to maneuver to avoid the other. Having said that, I’m unnerved by cyclists lane-splitting on Santa Monica. One rode past me the same day this collision took place at a speed faster than vehicle traffic, ‘splitting’ the lane between my small car and the curb. I was definitely surprised to find someone on my right, and wondered what would have happened if the cars in the #1 lane… Read more »
Which is why I NEVER ride my bike on SM Blvd!! As much as possible, I use smaller side streets. When not possible..I’m on the sidewalk.I am exceedingly cautious of pedestrians: especially the elderly, ones with disabilities, the ones walking dogs or with small children. I always jump off when something appears to be dicey. That said, I’ve become more than just proficient at judging time, distance & speed – mine and those walking – while riding on the sidewalk with pedestrians Never will I ride my bike on SM Blvd, nor ANY larger/main street, like Melrose. And Fountain..yeah, no.… Read more »