The typical garage positively brims with goodies that children want to get their hands on. From great stuff they’re allowed, like their bikes, to stuff they’re not - tools and toys requiring adult supervision - the attraction can be overwhelming. Once a kid has seen how the remote clicker works, it’s only a matter of time until he or she tries it alone.
With a malfunctioning or maladjusted reversal function on your automatic garage door, that adventure can swiftly turn lethal.
Real Dangers
In a 1996 report entitled Automatic garage door openers: hazard for children, the National Coalition Building Institute (NCBI) observed that “... at least 85 children have had permanent brain injury or have died since 1974 as a result of accidents involving automatic door openers." Detailing an average of almost four child deaths per year, the data makes salutary reading.
A subsequent news release, from the Consumer Product Safety Administration (CPSA), estimated the number of children trapped and killed beneath closing garage doors at an annual average of approximately three, “with other children having suffered brain damage or serious injuries when the closing door hit them, and failed to stop and reverse its direction."
Clearly, it’s vital that you, as a responsible homeowner, ensure your reversal device is working correctly.
Recommended Tests
The CPSA report suggests placing a length of 2"x4" wood on the garage floor, in the path of the closing door. The door should promptly reverse as soon as it strikes the wood. This test fails to take into account that children’s bodies are far more yielding than a chunk of solid timber; a door which reverses when contacting a 2'x4' may not react so promptly when crushing a child.The authors of the NCBI report used a cardiopulmonary resuscitation mannequin in their experiments, and found that 40 percent of doors tested failed to reverse when contacting the mannequin.
Rightly disturbed, they sought “...to develop a means by which homeowners can evaluate their door openers." They came up with the recommendation that you use a large roll of paper towels.
Notwithstanding the professionalism of both the CPSA and the NCBI , the inherent inaccuracies of using a length of wood or a roll of paper towels may seem a little off-putting when weighed against the life of a child.
Balance
Testing the balance of your door is also important. A properly balanced door will maintain a partially-opened position when not held in place, either by an operator or any attached machinery. Unbalanced doors can crash to the floor unexpectedly, presenting yet another danger to people beneath them, both adults and children alike.
To test balance:
•Close the garage door
•Detach the opener using the Quick Release mechanism
•Grasp the handle and move the door to a semi-open position
•Release the handle
A properly balanced door will remain absolutely static.
Professional Advice
Old-fashioned automatic doors may not be fitted with a reverse function, and doors that simply stop moving when they encounter an obstruction can hold a person trapped beneath them. This is more likely to be the case with garage door equipment manufactured, or imported, before December 1992, after which the CPSC required that they be outfitted with an external entrapment protection system. While these devices, most commonly an electric eye or a door edge sensor, add another level of operational safety, they also create another level of potential system failure.
Homeowners who suspect their doors to be of pre-1993 vintage, or with doors that bind or stick in operation, should immediately disconnect the mechanisms or power supply, then use the door manually until you can call on a professional like R&S in your area.
No comments:
Post a Comment