Melbourne Cyclist

Cycling in Melbourne Australia

So! I had an incident yesterday.

I was going down Flinders Lane when this guy in a Hilux/ute type thing just flung out his door. I managed to have the reflexes to swerve not to get hit.

As one does when one's life has just been threatened, I let out a few expletives. This guy had the nerve to say 'what did you say to me?'. I turned around and explained to him that a) opening a door like that and not checking for traffic is illegal, and b) he nearly KILLED me.

He had the nerve to then tell me that I was in the wrong because I wasn't on the far side of the one way street. I was actually about a metre away from the ute in question when going past. I reiterated that what he did was illegal and he just kept saying it was my fault.

Anyways, I was much upset at all of this but did have the presence of mind to get his plate number. I was just thinking of putting it on the plate site which you can list a plate and put it down as being one that has done something dodgy and name where the dodginess happened. Problem is that I can't remember the address or even the name of it to google it!

Not sure what to do now in other ways. I was so upset about what happened that when I got to outside work (not far from where it happened) I just sat down and cried for ages. Some workmates got me a cabcharge, locked my bike up and sent me home. I pretty much got hugs from my partner and went to sleep. I haven't reported to police or anything. Is it too late to do so?

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Hi Wrat,
Sympathy to you. It's scary.
You told him that it is illegal to open a car door into traffic and I think you are right.

If you report, you may need a witness to get any action. If you're lucky the police may have a chat to the driver anyway, but coz they're so busy, that would be a longshot without a witness.

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The Rate the Plate domain is cactus. Although Brimbank Council has a Hoon Line. Pity they didn't have a internal one for those feral councillors during the last decade or so.

In all seriousness, report it to the police, as it's a traffic offense.

Page 16 - Opening Doors
269. Opening doors and getting out of a vehicle etc.
(3) A person must not cause a hazard to any person or vehicle by opening a door of a vehicle, leaving a door of a vehicle open, or getting off, or out of, a vehicle. The penalty is 2 penalty units.

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Hey Wrat, sorry to hear this, it's a dang-gone ugly world out there, and we are generally on the receiving end...

Hope you've had a debrief over a couple of glasses of red or similar, and are smiling again!

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