On Apr 17, 10:13 am, "Theo Bekkers" wrote:
beerwolf wrote:
I've been pondering the long term potential for saving lives and
injuries, by changing car design standards to prevent doors being
flung open. I'd envisage a door opening in 2 stages - first a little
push could open it so there's a gap just big enough to see through.
Thereafter, the door would only move further with positive pressure
at a certain point far from the hinge, so your hand would have to
travel with the door. In similar mode to the spring-loaded doors you
find leading to stairwells. If this happened, we'd just about
eliminate the problem over time, I reckon.

How about we go back to "suicide" doors, front doors hinged at the centre
pillar, rear doors hinged at the rear. They make it much easier to get in
and out of the vehicle and would deflect a bike rider rather than give them
an edge to run in to. They will need a locking mechanism to prevent the
doors being opened whilst the vehicle is in motion, but that is not
difficult. A lot of cars now auto-lock the doors when they reach a
predetermined speed. All Mercedes cars now lock the doors at 15 km/h.

Theo

The problem with deflection is that the average death in this
situaation is caused by the rider being run over by a following car
while on the ground. This wasn't the case here but most often is.
Someone else has said it, aim for the door opener, don't swerve
outward.