It is the type of crash that city cyclists think about the most.
It is know as "getting doored," and it happened to a 31 year old male bicyclist on his way home from his bookkeeping job in the early evening of March 15th. My law firm represents the bicyclist and today successfully resolved the case on his behalf for a substantial sum. At about 6:15 p.m. he was riding north in the shared bicycle lane on North Clark Street, just north of West Olive Avenue in the Edgewater neighborhood, when the driver's door of a 2006 Toyota Highlander SUV suddenly opened in his path. He was riding with an operating white light on the front of his bike. He was wearing a helmet. When the door flung open the cyclist tried to brake and steer to his left to avoid it but clipped the door with his right hand and handlebar. The collision sent him spinning before he crashed hard onto the road, the impact with the ground knocking the wind out of him. Unable to stand at first, he crawled to the side of the road to avoid getting hit by oncoming traffic.
By the time emergency response personnel arrived on the scene, his right hand was badly swollen. His left elbow was also cut and bleeding. He was placed in an ambulance and rushed to a nearby hospital. An x-ray revealed that he had sustained a right wrist fracture. While convalescing and undergoing painful physical therapy treatments, the injured man was unable to enjoy his ordinary activities including bicycling, playing the banjo and playing tennis. He also experienced difficulty with common household tasks and washing himself. It took two months of care and treatment for him to to return to normal.
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