Bike rider Injured in Avenue I ‘Dooring’ Crash, Second Brooklyn Incident This Month

For the second time this month, a Brooklyn bicycle rider was the victim of the dangerous new phenomenon known as a “dooring” crash.

The most recent incident took place on Jan. 6 in Kensington, according to police, who said a 57-year-old man riding his bike on Avenue I was seriously injured when he collided with the door of a parked car that had been opened at that same moment by the vehicle’s driver.

The bike rider was traveling west on Avenue I at approximately 12:30 p.m. when the driver of a parked car near East Second Street opened his door and the cyclist struck the door, police said.

The victim was taken to Maimonides Medical Center. Police said he was listed in critical condition.

Police did not release the name of the victim or the driver. The NYPD’s Highway Unit and Collision Investigation Squad are looking into the crash.

The “dooring” crash comes on the heels of a deadly collision that took place in Sunset Park on New Year’s Day.

In that incident, the victim, Hugo Alexander Sinto Garcia, a 26-year-old bagel shop worker, was riding an electronic bike northbound on Third Avenue near 28th Street shortly before 6 a.m. on Jan. 1 when the driver of a parked 2009 Toyota taxi cab suddenly opened the door, police said.

Garcia was knocked into the path of oncoming traffic, police said.

A second car, a 2013 Nissan driven by a 53-year-old man, struck Garcia, police said.

Garcia was taken to NYU Langone Hospital – Brooklyn, where he was pronounced dead.

Joseph Cutrufo, communications director for the advocacy group Transportation Alternatives, said “dooring” is dangerous.

“Dooring is what happens when a driver or passenger opens a door of a vehicle (ostensibly without looking) in the path of an oncoming bicyclist,” Cutrufo recently told this newspaper.

Transportation Alternatives is calling on the de Blasio administration to install more protected bike lanes on streets around the city.

Protected bike lanes are designated lanes that are separated from vehicular traffic by barriers like planters, posts or parked cars.

Ellen McDermott, co-interim director of Transportation Alternatives, went as far as to say that that the fatal New Year’s Day crash could have been prevented if the city had put in a protected bike lane.