Robin Herman | 00:00
A driver opens a door into a cyclist in Manhattan Street. Who’s at fault in a dooring case, dooring case and, what does the law say?
Glenn Herman | 00:15
Who is at fault in a dooring case? Let me just explain what a dooring case is. That’s when cyclist is coming along. Car door just suddenly opens, cyclist crashes into the door or worse, the cyclist diverts away from the door and into traffic, and sometimes it’s just been devastating injuries when that happens. So who’s responsible? The person opening the door and the driver Under New York vehicle and traffic law section 1214, which states that no person shall open a car door unless it’s reasonably safe to do so and can be done without interfering with the traffic. So the responsibility is on not only the passenger, the driver, and in New York, vehicle traffic law 388 puts responsibility on the owner of the vehicle as well. When it’s a taxi cab, a yellow cab, or even a livery, they can’t stop in the middle of the street. They have to pull over to the side by the curb before they let the passenger out, and unfortunately, we’ve had cases where the car just stopped in the lane or half in the lane, passenger opens the door and there’s a big crash caused by that.
Robin Herman | 01:30
So if the passenger opens the door, the owner and the operator are still responsible too?
Glenn Herman | 01:35
Correct. As well as the passenger, and the issue with the passenger usually is the insurance., they don’t have separate insurance for that. So, we have to go after the insurance of the driver and the owner of the car.
Robin Herman | 01:49
So let’s say a rider is going faster than 15 miles per hour when a car hits him. Can there still be liability against the driver if the guy on the bike is going faster than 15?
Glenn Herman | 01:58
Right. I think we might have referred to this in a prior episode, but if there’s a car crash and the riders going faster than 15 miles an hour. First, you have to know that the 15 mile an hour rule only applies to e-bikes. So if you’re on a regular bike, pedal bike, road bike, any other kind of bike, hybrid, It doesn’t have an electric motor. 15 mile an hour doesn’t apply. In any crash, we have to look at all the facts and specifically what caused the crash. The mere fact that the cyclist is going more than 15 miles an hour, doesn’t prevent a valid claim against the driver and the owner. So every situation really needs to be investigated. Looked at from all angles and in most cases going a few miles an hour faster than 15 miles an hour is isn’t what causes the crash. So in those situations, it really wouldn’t have any effect on someone’s claim.
Robin Herman | 03:02
New York uses comparative negligence. Explain how a writer still can recover money even when they share some of the blame.
Glenn Herman | 03:09
Okay. This is something that New York State has, other states don’t have it, and it’s a really good thing that we still have it. A rider can still recover for their injuries, even if they were partially at fault for the crash, and that’s what’s meant by comparative negligence. The law compares the negligence of the parties. So if the driver of the car was negligent.l, uh wasn’t obeying the law, but the rider also wasn’t doing what he did. Like for instance, the rider was coming the wrong direction. The jury’s asked to compare the negligence and assess the fault on literally a percentage basis. Car could be 90% at fault. The cyclist could be 10% at fault. As long as you get to 100%. And this is what’s called in New York, where a pure comparative negligence state. So the fault can be split.
Robin Herman | 04:13
Then once it’s split, what happens to say a verdict?
Glenn Herman | 04:17
So once it’s split, let’s say they find the cyclist is 10%. If the cyclist gets a jury verdict in the cyclist’s favor, whatever that amount is gets reduced by the percentage of fault.
Robin Herman | 04:34
Right. Let’s say a delivery worker on an e-bike hits a pedestrian. Who pays? Is it the rider, the company they work for, or somebody else?
Glenn Herman | 04:43
All right, that’s a good question. If a pedestrian is struck by a delivery worker on an e-bike, whether it’s in Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, the Bronx. Who can the pedestrian go after to get compensated for their medical bills and also for their pain and suffering? It depends. And the answer turns on one central legal question, is the rider an employee or an independent contractor? And there’s a really big difference. So let’s say the delivery worker is an employee of a diner because most restaurants now are using DoorDash and Grubhub and so forth. If he’s an employee of a specific restaurant, you have a potential party who has insurance that would cover medical costs and payment suffering and so forth. On the other hand, if the delivery worker is riding for an app DoorDash, Uber Eats. They’re viewed as an independent contractor, and really, unfortunately, and we’ve been trying to do something about this. There’s no insurance in those cases. So the answer to the question is it depends on the circumstances of a particular incident.