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Toll Free: (866) 907-1145 | Local: (919) 833-3370
Toll Free: (866) 907-1145
Local: (919) 833-3370
If a car door opened in front of your bike, get to a safe spot, call 911, and get the name and contact information of the person who opened the door. Photograph the car, the open door, your bike, and your injuries. Then get checked by a doctor the same day, even if you feel okay.
Getting hit by a car door, called getting "doored," happens in a split second. One moment you are riding past parked cars on Hillsborough Street. The next you are on the pavement with a bent wheel and a throbbing wrist. What you do in the next hour can decide whether anyone is held responsible. Our Raleigh bicycle accident lawyers at The Law Offices of John M. McCabe, P.A. help cyclists across Raleigh, Cary, and the Triangle after these crashes. Learn more on our Raleigh bicycle accident lawyer page.
Move out of traffic if you can, call 911, and do not let the driver leave before you get their information. Ask the police to come and write a crash report. People who open a door into a cyclist often apologize at first and change their story later. A report made at the scene protects you.
Once you are safe, try to collect:
If you track rides with a GPS app or bike computer, save that ride file. It can show your speed and exact position at the moment of impact.
Dooring is when someone in a parked or stopped car opens a door into the path of a cyclist. The rider either slams into the door or swerves to avoid it. Dooring crashes often happen in bike lanes that run right next to parked cars, in what cyclists call the door zone.
The door zone is the strip about the width of an open car door along a row of parked cars. In the Triangle, it shows up on streets like Hillsborough Street, Glenwood Avenue in Glenwood South, and downtown streets in Cary and Raleigh where bike lanes share space with parking. A door can swing open faster than any rider can stop.
Usually the person who opened the door. Under North Carolina negligence law, anyone opening a car door into a travel lane must take reasonable care to check for oncoming bikes, cars, and pedestrians first. Failing to look before swinging a door open is the kind of carelessness that can support an injury claim.
Negligence means failing to use the care a reasonable person would use. In North Carolina, a bicycle is legally a vehicle, so a cyclist riding in a lane or bike lane is part of traffic. The person in the parked car does not get to treat the lane as empty space.
Not statewide. North Carolina is one of the few states without a statewide dooring law. Some cities have filled the gap. Raleigh adopted a local dooring ordinance in 2013, and Chapel Hill passed its own. These ordinances make it unlawful to open a door into moving traffic unless it is safe.
Raleigh's rule also bars leaving a door open longer than needed to get in or out. A violation of a local safety ordinance can be strong evidence of negligence in a civil claim. Where there is no local ordinance, the general duty of reasonable care still applies. The person opening the door still had to look.
Yes. A passenger who opens a door without looking can be responsible for a dooring crash, just like a driver. North Carolina negligence law applies to anyone whose carelessness causes harm. That includes the friend hopping out of the passenger side and the rider getting out of an Uber.
The driver may share responsibility too, for example by stopping in a bike lane to drop someone off. That is why it matters who opened the door and where the car was stopped. Write it down at the scene while it is fresh.
You may have claims against both people. If you swerved into the travel lane to avoid an opening door and a passing car hit you, the person who opened the door may be responsible for putting you there. The passing driver may also be responsible if they were following too closely or passing too near.
North Carolina lets an injured person recover the full damages from any defendant whose negligence combined to cause the same injury. You do not have to prove you actually touched the door. You have to show the door forced you into harm's way.
The person who opened the door may try. North Carolina's contributory negligence rule can bar an injured person who was even slightly at fault. That makes the details of your ride important.
Common arguments include riding too fast for the street, riding at night without the required front light and rear reflector or light, or riding while distracted. Adults are not required to wear helmets in North Carolina, though riders under 16 are. The last clear chance doctrine can sometimes overcome the contributory negligence bar, when the other person had a final chance to avoid the harm. Your ride data, lights, and witness accounts help answer these arguments.
Dooring crashes often throw a rider forward over the handlebars or sideways into the street. Treating physicians commonly see broken wrists and collarbones from bracing a fall, shoulder injuries, facial cuts and dental damage, knee injuries, and head injuries, even with a helmet on.
Some injuries hide at first. Adrenaline masks pain, and a concussion may not show its full effects for a day or two. A same-day exam creates a record that ties your injuries to the crash. Our Raleigh traumatic brain injury lawyers often see cyclists who felt fine at the scene.
Other parties may be involved. A rideshare driver who stopped in a bike lane to let a passenger out may share fault, and rideshare coverage rules may come into play. Our Raleigh rideshare accident lawyers handle those questions.
A delivery driver who flung open a door while on the job may make the employer responsible too. North Carolina generally holds employers responsible for employees' negligence while they are working. Note any company name or logo on the vehicle.
Not yet. Your bike, helmet, and clothing are evidence. A cracked helmet, a bent fork, or a scuff on the frame can show how hard and where you hit the door.
Take detailed photos and keep everything as-is until our Cary bicycle accident attorneys can document it. Get a written repair estimate from a local bike shop instead of a repair. The estimate shows the damage without changing it.
Generally three years from the date of the crash. That deadline is called the statute of limitations. If a crash causes a death, the family generally has two years to file a wrongful death claim.
The evidence deadline is much shorter. Business security video along busy Raleigh streets is often recorded over within days or weeks. If you think a camera caught the crash, ask for the footage quickly. Our post on what to do if hit by a car while riding a bike in Raleigh covers other bike crash situations.
A car door should never be a hazard you have to dodge in your own lane. The Law Offices of John M. McCabe, P.A. helps Triangle cyclists find out who opened that door, gather the evidence fast, and push for what North Carolina law allows. John M. McCabe grew up in Cary and knows the streets where these crashes keep happening. Your consultation is free, and there is no attorney fee unless there is a recovery. Contact our Raleigh bicycle accident lawyers today.
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