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A cyclist swerves on the road while a motorist opens the door of his car (stock photo)
Photo: Thomas Trutschel / photothek / IMAGO
Almost every cyclist is familiar with such a situation: you drive past a row of parked cars – suddenly a door opens.
In the worst case, a so-called "dooring" accident follows, the cyclist collides with the open door.
After such a case, the Cologne district court has now sentenced a driver to full liability for the damage.
He had opened his driver's door in such a way that a racing cyclist collided with it and was seriously injured.
The driver's insurance had initially only recognized a liability of 75 percent.
The cyclist is partly to blame because he passed the parked car too close.
He could also have noticed that the driver wanted to open his door after parking, the insurance company argued.
The racing cyclist did not want to let this stand, complained and was right: the driver must behave when opening the driver's door in such a way that endangering others is excluded, the court announced on Wednesday (Az: 5 O 372/20).
It cannot be assumed that the cyclist kept too little lateral distance.
There was a lot of traffic.
The racing cyclist himself stated that he had driven faster than 30 km/h, which was allowed at the accident site.
The court found that no reproach could be made against him for this.
It was said that he did not have to reckon with "such gross carelessness on the part of the driver".
The plaintiff had described that the accident not only restricted him in his job as a trauma surgeon, but also in his free time.
The court decided that he was entitled to 7,500 euros in compensation for pain and suffering.
According to a study, such accidents caused by carelessly opening the driver's door are more common than previously thought.
A study by the insurers' accident research institute (UDV) in 2020 indicated that 18 percent of inner-city accidents involving cyclists and pedestrians were related to parking.
That was higher than official statistics, which show that just 5 percent of all accidents involving injured pedestrians and cyclists involve parked cars.
The study showed that dooring in particular posed a major risk.
In inner-city areas, hastily opened car doors accounted for 52 percent of parked-vehicle-related bicycle accidents.
Tram tracks as a special danger
Such accidents often result in head injuries for cyclists and are difficult to predict.
A cyclist traveling at 20 km/h would have to notice at least eleven meters in advance that the door is opening in order to come to a stop in time.
Dodging is often not possible because cars are overtaking at the same time.
According to the study, tram tracks turned out to be an additional danger.
Every fifth dooring accident in the study areas happened on streets where tram tracks were laid.
Cyclists can therefore often not keep a sufficient distance from parked cars on such sections without having to cross the tracks - and if they dodge, they can cause a fall.
joe/dpa