Video footage shows a person in a car opening their door while driving alongside a biker in what appears to be a deliberate attempt to hit the cyclist in Emeryville, Calif. 

An East Bay bicycling group is condemning what it said was a series of intentional driver attacks on its members, several of whom were thrown from their bikes and suffered serious injuries last week.  Wheel Weight Hammer

The group, East Bay Bike Party, said at least four cars swerved toward cyclists or opened passenger-side doors to strike oncoming cyclists – an act known as “dooring” – in “a string of attacks” that took place from Thursday to Saturday. 

More than 20 people were targeted and at least eight people were hit, with two hospitalized for serious injuries, said Mingwei Samuel, a volunteer with the group. Given the similarity between all the attacks, the group believes they were likely carried out by the same people, Samuel said.

The Oakland Police Department said it was investigating a collision between a car and a cyclist that occurred Friday around 8 p.m. near the Rockridge BART station, but could not provide details due to an ongoing cyberattack that prevented officials from accessing police files and prevented some cyclists from filing police reports. 

Law enforcement agencies in Emeryville and Berkeley, where cyclists alleged other attacks occurred, did not respond to inquiries about whether they believed the incidents were related. 

Ellie Mead was riding on Shasta Street to a Bike Party meet-up at the Rockridge BART station in Oakland around 8 p.m. Friday when she noticed a gray sedan pass her at close range. Its proximity struck her as odd, she said in an interview, as the street was otherwise empty. 

Moments later, a passenger abruptly opened the car’s side door. Unable to stop in time, Mead slammed headlong into the door and was thrown from her bike, gashing her forehead and scraping her hands. 

As she lay bleeding on the pavement, Mead heard the passengers laughing as they sped away. 

“I have had scrapes with cars before, but this felt really different,” she said Monday. “They were stalking us, trying to pick us off.”

Mead was unable to report the incident because the police reporting systems were down, she said. 

Deeply shaken with eight new stitches in her forehead, Mead said the experience underscored the vulnerability of cyclists in an urban landscape that caters to cars, a theme that other Bike Party members also highlighted in a coordinated media campaign to draw attention to the issue. The group’s pleas for a greater emphasis on biker safety comes at a time of rising tensions between cyclists and city governments, even as officials have ramped up efforts to carve out protective lanes and other bike infrastructure improvements. 

Marcelo Monsalve and friends were cycling near Lake Merritt around 11:30 p.m. Friday when a blue hatchback swerved toward them and then circled back at high speed. The car struck two of Monsalve’s friends, but failed to knock them from their bikes. 

“I was immediately angry,” he said. “They just hit us and ran off.”

As they attempted to track down the driver, Monsalve said they encountered a man reeling in pain after being knocked from his bike by the same car. 

That cyclist, Russell Heller, later went to the emergency room with a shattered left elbow and broken left foot – injuries he sustained from the force of the car striking him on the left side of his body. On Monday, Heller waited in a busy doctor’s office as he prepared for surgery to repair the bones in his elbow. 

“I am shocked that someone would do this to another person,” he said. “I can’t fathom why someone would go around trying to injure people on bikes,” Heller said.  

Heller hoped Oakland would do more to protect its cycling community, still reeling from the string of attacks.   

“We can't live in a city where every time you get on a bike you fear that someone is going to try to kill you intentionally,” he said. 

Reach Nora Mishanec: nora.mishanec@sfchronicle.com

Closed Flow Lock On Tire Chuck With Clip Nora Mishanec is a San Francisco Chronicle breaking news and enterprise reporter. She joined the paper in 2020 as a Hearst fellow and returned in 2022 after a stint at The Houston Chronicle.