Written and reviewed by Josh Kohanim, Esq., California Bar No. 328609 · Reviewed
In this guide
A cyclist hit by an opening car door, including during a rideshare pickup, has a claim against the person who opened it and often against more than one policy. A crash caused by a driver overtaking you is covered on our parent page on Los Angeles bicycle accidents.
The rule on opening a car door
Dooring is a collision between a cyclist and a car door swung open into the path of travel, or between a cyclist and something else after he swerved to avoid one. The door zone is the strip of pavement within the arc of an opening door, and on most Los Angeles streets it overlaps the bike lane.
No person shall open the door of a vehicle on the side available to moving traffic unless it is reasonably safe to do so and can be done without interfering with the movement of such traffic, nor shall any person leave a door open on the side of a vehicle available to moving traffic for a period of time longer than necessary to load or unload passengers.California Vehicle Code section 22517
Two parts of that sentence decide cases. The subject is no person, which reaches every occupant of the car. The second clause creates a separate violation for a door left standing open, which is why a rider who hit a door that had been open for thirty seconds still has a claim. The section is published at leginfo.legislature.ca.gov.
Fault sits with whoever opened the door
A violation of section 22517 supports negligence per se, the rule allowing a jury to presume a defendant was negligent because he broke a statute written to prevent this kind of harm to this kind of person. A cyclist in the roadway is the person the statute protects. The presumption shifts the work to the defense, which then has to explain why opening the door was reasonably safe.
The usual defense is that the rider should have seen the door. No California statute requires a cyclist to ride outside the swing of a parked car, and comparative fault, which reduces an award by the share of responsibility assigned to the rider, needs an actual failure to point at. Riding at a normal speed in a marked lane is not one. What the defense can use is a rider who was passing a stopped queue at speed, or riding without a light after dark.
Which policy pays for a dooring
| Who opened it | Who is liable | Policy that responds |
|---|---|---|
| The owner driving his own car | The driver | His auto liability |
| A passenger in a private car | The passenger, and often the driver | The car's liability, and the passenger's own auto or renters policy |
| A rideshare passenger during a trip | The passenger | The transportation network company's policy may apply |
| An employee in a company vehicle | The employee and the employer | The commercial auto policy |
| A city, county, or transit employee | The public entity | No insurer. A government claim within six months |
| A driver who fled after the door strike | Unidentified | Your own uninsured motorist coverage |
The row for a passenger in a private car is the one most often missed. A passenger who opens a door carries personal liability that can reach his own auto policy or a renters policy, and the car's own liability coverage is usually available as well. Both policies matter once the medical bills pass a $30,000 minimum policy limit.
When an Uber passenger opened the door
The same crash repeats on Sunset, Ventura, and Abbot Kinney. A driver stops short of the curb, a passenger opens the curbside or the traffic-side rear door without looking back, and a rider in the bike lane has about a second. The passenger is bound by section 22517 like anyone else. What changes is the coverage behind him.
Public Utilities Code section 5433 sets the coverage a transportation network company, the law's term for a rideshare company, must carry by app status. From log-on until a ride request is accepted, it is $50,000 per person, $100,000 per incident, and $30,000 property damage, with $200,000 in excess coverage above those limits. From acceptance through the end of the ride, it is $1,000,000 for death, personal injury, and property damage. That second figure is why establishing the trip status matters more than anything else in the file.
Establishing it is mechanical. The passenger's app has a receipt with a timestamp and a pickup pin, and the driver's app has the same trip from the other side. Our attorneys send a preservation letter, a written demand to keep the trip record, to the company immediately, because the trip record is the difference between a $50,000 layer and a $1,000,000 one. Our page on Los Angeles Uber and rideshare accidents covers how those periods work in a collision claim.
Proving it after the car drives off
Dooring cases turn on a fact nobody photographed: how far the door was open, and for how long. It is rebuilt from physical evidence, and every piece of that evidence has a short shelf life.
- The door edge and the bike. A door strike leaves a transfer mark at a measurable height on the door edge, and matching paint or rubber on the handlebar, brake lever, or pedal.
- The rider's injuries. Which side the bruising and abrasion fall on shows which way the rider was thrown, and a fractured elbow on the door side shows the arm reached it first.
- The resting positions. Where the bike stopped relative to the car, and where the rider landed, bracket how far into the lane the door reached.
- Video. Storefront and doorbell cameras on a commercial block usually overwrite within two weeks. Someone has to walk the block and ask before that happens.
- The occupants. Get names at the scene. A passenger who has already left in another car is far harder to identify a month later than the registered owner.
One more record is worth requesting early. If the car was repaired, the body shop estimate describes the damage to the door edge in writing, which is often the cleanest proof that the door was struck rather than the car. Photographs of the bike before it is scrapped do the same work from the other direction.
When the dooring rule does not apply
- You swerved and never touched the door. The claim still exists, because the negligence caused the crash whether or not contact happened. Proving it needs a witness or video, since the physical evidence of contact is what is missing.
- You were riding against traffic. A rider going the wrong way down a one-way street or against the flow on a two-way street will carry a real share of the fault, because the door opener's duty runs to traffic he could reasonably expect.
- The door was on private property. A parking structure or a lot is not a highway, so section 22517 may not apply and the claim is ordinary negligence instead. The duty of care remains, but the statutory presumption does not.
- A second vehicle hit you after the door. Two defendants, two insurers, and an argument between them about which impact caused which injury. Both belong in the claim from the start.
- The door belonged to a government vehicle. A city, county, or transit vehicle turns this into a government claim with a six month deadline under Government Code section 911.2, not the usual two years.
The first 48 hours
Who is responsible for the open door
The person who opened it, in nearly every case, and the second clause of section 22517 covers the door that was already sitting open. Where you were riding is not the question the statute asks. What decides the size of the claim is who that person was and what policy stood behind him, which is why a rideshare pickup and a private car produce very different files from the identical crash.
Our explainer on the California three foot law and dooring covers the passing rule, and our guides on bike lane and right hook accidents and e-bike accidents cover the neighboring collisions. The parent page on Los Angeles bicycle accident claims covers the claim as a whole.
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