WEDNESDAY, Oct. 24, 2001 (HealthDayNews) -- Automatic safety gates may keep intruders at bay, but the government says that protection has a cost.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) says at least 32 people, including 20 children, have died since 1985 in accidents involving sliding or swinging gates at apartment complexes, garages, parking lots and commercial buildings.
The agency also says 25,000 Americans were injured by gates between 1990 and 2000 -- or more than 2,000 a year -- including serious wounds to the head, neck and limbs. Of those, 9,000 were children under age 15.
"The injuries are not scrapes and bruises. They're extremely serious injuries, and the deaths are so tragic," says Scott Wolfson, a CPSC spokesman. "We want to see those numbers come down from 2,000 a year."
In March 2000, the CPSC and Underwriters Laboratories, an Illinois company that helps create standards for everything from toasters to transistor radios, agreed that gates should have some sort of detection system to reverse the doors if a person or object is obstructing them. The new, voluntary standards they developed call for gate makers to install a backup mechanism, such as an electric eye or safety edge, that can reverse the swing.
The standards urge automatic gate companies to make several other design changes to improve safety, including:
- narrowing or covering with mesh all gaps wider than 2.25 inches, and putting gate controls far away from the doors. Trapped people are tempted to reach for the control boxes, and many injuries and deaths occur when victims get crushed while trying to activate them;
- locating control boxes so that the doors can be seen while opening or closing;
- eliminating so-called "pinch points" around rollers or exposed chains that can injure hands, fingers or feet of children who try to ride on gates;
- installing guards on exposed rollers that move the gate doors over the ground, and posting warning signs on both sides of a gate.
Wolfson says it's too soon to tell if the standards are reducing injuries and deaths. He says the agency hopes that publicizing the guidelines will make people notice whether the gates on the buildings where they live, work or park need modification. "Subtle changes can truly help save someone's life," he says.
John Addington, executive director of the Door & Access Systems Manufacturers Association (DASMA), in Cleveland, says the injury figures reported by CPSC are "a little bit high," but he says his group has been encouraging its 90-odd members to make changes outlined in the 2000 guidelines. The association also has been stressing the importance of the standards to dealers who install automatic gates, Addington says.
Naomi Angel, the association's general counsel, says the modifications will make a difference. "As more and more installers and installing dealers do in fact comply with [the new guidelines] then the incidence of injury will decrease," Angel says.
What To Do
To find out more about gate standards and other consumer safety issues, check the CPSC.
For tips on how to make your home safe for children, try the University of Michigan.
