Patent ID: 7210731

Claim:
A sliding door apparatus comprising: a sliding door having a window hole and configured to be slidable with respect to a vehicle body; an opening/closing member configured to open and close the window hole; a window hole openness detector configured to detect a position of the opening/closing member relative to the window hole so as to determine an openness of the window hole; a door position detector configured to detect a position of the sliding door relative to the vehicle body; and a slide restricting unit configured to be activated to project from one to another one of the vehicle body and the sliding door, so as to abut on the another one such that the sliding door is stopped from sliding in a direction toward which the sliding door is opened relatively to the vehicle body, when the openness determined by the window hole openness detector is greater than a threshold, and the position of the sliding door is detected to be between a full-closed position and a midway position.