Cyclist collides with the swung open door of a car in Leuven, another car runs over her legs

26 comments

1. Please, car drivers, always look out before opening your door, especially if you are parked next to a “fietspad”. Please, cyclist, always wear good lighting.

2. https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2023/02/20/ongevallen-fietsers-rijden-tegen-opengezwaaid-portier-tips/

   I mean… This is thought in driving schools. At least back when I took lessons.

   But then again, so is keeping the speed limit.

3. Fucking VRT with the passive voice making it sound as if the car door swung open all by itself. Or worse, implying that the cyclist is at fault for cycling into an open car door.

4. Das wel een dik horror verhaal. ook ooit eens zo een portier tegen mijn aangezicht gekregen. kap in mijn gezicht van 5 cm boven mijn oog. 1 cm lager en ik was piet piraat geweest.
   kijk daarom altijd eerst in de zijspiegel, portier op een kier, kijk nog eens en dan pas deur opendoen.

5. Once, don’t know how, by instinct I suppose, managed to swerve left one second before a car door was opened right in my original path. Missed it by a few centimeters. Car driver was stunned, and didn’t even respond to my *digitus impudicus*.

6. I couldn’t avoid a cardoor once and the top corner hit me in the shoulder. Luckily I wasn’t going fast and didn’t fall over. Couldn’t swerve cause I was next to tramrails.

   Ever since I am super wary around cars with people inside them. I am watching them like a hawk so I can swerve or brake on time.

   I really feel for the biker.

7. Verschrikkelijk… man man hoe je iemand zijn leven zo snel om zeep kan helpen. De persoon van het portier gaat dat nooit zo bedoeld hebben, maar gewoon een keer nadenken voor je iets doet is toch echt niet zo moeilijk. Ik heb zo ook eens een autodeur eraf gereden, die persoon was zelfs kwaad op mij, terwijl dat een simpele blik in uw spiegel _die er nota bene aan vast hangt_ dat allemaal had kunnen vermijden.

8. I know that cyclists can be reckless, but you don’t need to be an expert to say that this is the drivers fault. As a kid I once swung open the back door of the car and nearly hit a cyclist, my mom told me to always slightly open my door and look first (I was a kid so I was in the back, no mirror) nearly hitting that person scared me so much I never swung open my door again. I don’t drive a car yet, but I’ll surely be looking in my mirror everytime I get out.

   Moral of the story: look at your surroundings, this counts for both cyclists and car drivers. Just be safe in traffic in general.

9. Given this subreddit, somebody is going to come along soon and blame cyclists somehow.

10. Friend of mine had the same thing happen to him (door swinging open, not being ran over legs) about 200m from that place.

    Unless they build some underground parking near Hal 5 or so, it’s hard to find a realistic solution (with the current number of cars) to get rid of those to make space for a decent (and safe) cycling path. It’s 1km of parking spots both on the left and right side of the street, which is most of the time filled up. Those parking spots get used by people who live there and all surrounding area in Kessel-Lo is already full.

11. This shit right here is exactly why i’m always extra carefull when cycling next to parked cars.

12. Congratz to the absolute retard in the parked car. You possibly focked someone over for the rest of her lives AND gave another driver a shitscare that will probably impact that driver too.

    ​

    The amount of people just swinging open car doors as if they are entering a fucking saloon … .

13. Poor lady and poor other car driver.

14. Same thing happened, I flew into the road and luckily stayed just on the right side with my head, cause a van drove past on the other side of the road.

15. I recently had to swerve for someone opening his car door. I drive a cargo bike and he was already half out of the car. Would’ve hurt more for him than me if I crashed 😅

16. My bf had a kind of similar situation.
    The woman was going out of her car and in same time on her mobile phone, so he run into her car door.
    She wasn’t even sorry, she told him he was speeding too fast (he was not). She tried to escape. He took pics of her plate.
    He called the police.
    She started to cry.
    The police came. She started to say she was a poor woman trying to educate her kid alone, a teacher, and she started to cry.
    Then, the policeman started to say to my boyfriend he was maybe speeding too fast, and he should have put a third light on his bicycle. ( he had already one light on the front, one light on the back, plus the super helmet Lumos i bought him with lights, and a fluo yellow jacket with reflecting parts)
    My bf felt like he was he was not anymore the victim, even if she could kill him by opening her door without looking because she was on the phone.
    The policeman were rude with him, they didn’t consider him as a victim at all.
    The day after, he found his work phone in his bag was broken with the collision and he started to have back pain.
    I contacted the police, i found they made a “fiche info” for a disagreement between ppl on the public road, not even for the collision between with this woman.
    They didn’t even make a PV!
    My boyfriend refused to go to see the doctor and to put a complain for his phone because he didn’t trust anymore the police.
    I contacted a friend policeman, he was horrified when i told him what happened.

    He told me those advice if my bf has again an issue in bxl :

    CALL THE POLICE.
    (my advice : take car pics, plate etc).
    ASK THEM TO CREATE A PV.
    GO SEE A DOC if you have pain, scars… As soon as possible ( i don’t remember if he said within the 24 or 48h)

    Good luck.

17. As a (motor)cyclist, you have to be the eyes of all the other traffic around you as well. Don’t count on other people for keeping you safe.
    Driving close to parked cars has been a no-no in my book for years. Ever since I’ve been hit by a car as an 8 year old and got thrown over the hood I’m super careful. (That it was a parked car with no one in it is just a small detail)

    All my injuries have been self inflicted so far. The last one probably looked hilarious, sadly there were no bystanders. Carrying a plate with deserts in one hand(on my birthday going to work) and my other hand on the brake, I had just installed new brake pads I didn’t use or test once yet. I didn’t knew physics would allow me to fly over my steering wheel like that. But it sure did, and my knee disk never felt the same again…

18. Huh waarom zou een fietser zomaar tegen een opgezwaaid portier rijden? Domme fietser. /s

    Ik haat hoe ze altijd autobestuurders beschermen in titels van dit soort artikels.

19. Het is precies de fietser zijn fout volgens die titel.

20. Car drivers don’t see cyclists as road users, but just some sort of obstacle you have to get around. Nobody respects the 1m or 1.5m rule for overtaking. I scratched a woman’s car a couple of years ago because she overtook me too closely. Same thing almost happened again when someone overtook me in a fietsstraat in Leuven literally 5 cm from me. Fucking idiot even got angry at me.

21. Een leerkracht van mij maakte dit ook me toen ik in het 6e middelbaar zat in de 2e week van het nieuwe schooljaar, we hebben haar heel het jaar niet gezien.

22. somebody i used to clean for told me once how his dad died on our street pretty much the same incident he held his head down trying to get out of the way but hit his head against the door for a fatal hit… .

    ever since then when i’m driving near parked cars i’ll drive further away, idc if i’m too far on the road really but if somebody swings it open i’ll have extra room to hopefully get hit by the door.

23. I see people just fully open their car door in the middle of traffic by main roads all the time. It’s not even something people within a specific age group do but just a general lack of situational awareness among people.

24. That street is almost impossible for cyclists to drive safely. Sandwiched between rushing traffic and parked cars. It would have almost been safer not to have a cycling path there, at least that way the cyclist could just drive in the middle of the road and wouldn’t have to worry about this happening.

25. Not gonna lie, this is one of my biggest fears while cycling.

    Almost happened to me back in 2021, fortunately I managed to swerve just in time and no other car was on the street.

26. heb ooit eens gehad dat een auto mij voorbijstak, direkt uitweek naar de kant, vol op de rem ging om ‘te parkeren’ aan de bakker (welk geen officiele parkeerplaats was btw), waardoor ik niets anders kon doen dan vollop met mijn fiets al remmend tegen de achterkant van de auto te rijden/botsen en zo op de achterruit belande.
    de opmerking van de bestuurder – had je me niet gezien dan?
    had gij mij niet gezien misschien, halve zool!