PSA on doorings: check your mirrors!

[Brett Dikeman]

Last night riding home from (oddly enough) a cycling club BBQ, I was
"doored".  For those who don't know- this is when a driver opens a car
door into the path of a cyclist, catching the body or bike.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Door_zone

I got to spend 8 hours in the ER thanks to someone's carelessness in
spending 2-3 seconds looking in their mirror; thankfully, no broken
bones.  She claims she looked in her mirror and opened the door
slowly, but reality is that she wasn't looking, opened it quickly, and
I have the projector-beam-like 5W LED bike light which projects a
focused, bright beam.  It's the kind of thing you don't miss if you're
looking in your mirror.  This upstanding person also left me on the
ground in pain and hid in the store; the cops had to go in and find
her and bring her out.

This kind of collision is completely, 100% the fault of drivers and
completely, 100% avoidable.  PLEASE, check your mirrors before opening
your door!  I lucked out in that I wasn't thrown into the road, more
crash-landed straight, but people can be and are seriously
injured/killed when they swerve / are knocked out / fall into traffic
and struck or run over.  I've also seen people's hands permanently
disfigured from catching the door edge, and heard stories from friends
who ended up stuffed into the driver's footwell.

-Brett