Your garage door is an amazing tool that over the course of a year, goes up and down approximately 1,500 times. With that in mind: How often do you concern yourself with its safe operation? If you’re like most people, your door’s hard work probably goes unnoticed, until something goes amiss.
As the largest moving object, not to mention the heaviest, garage doors unfortunately pose significant safety concerns. Concerns that when unchecked can lead to the occurrence of an accident. While garage door related accidents are the fault of no one, they are 100 percent avoidable.
While the risks are real, you can take steps to ensure your safety and the safety of your children isn’t compromised, by making the effort to ensure your garage door is properly cared for with the assistance of a professional garage door service company.
Frequent Injuries
According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), an estimated 20,000 adults and children visit emergency rooms each year for garage related injuries. Injuries that ranged in severity from mild to fatal. The latter of which is fortunately fairly low. Common injuries include:
- Lacerations
- Head injuries
- Pinched fingers
- Fractured or broken bones
Safety Tips for Garage Door Accident Prevention
#1: Always Use A Professional: Thinking of repairing or installing your garage door yourself? Think again. Improper installation and repairs can create a hazardous situation. That’s why it’s best that you contact a professional garage door repair company.
#2: Never Try To Beat A Closing Door: Attempting to run under a closing garage door can lead to disaster. For you safety, always enter the garage when the door is fully opened, and no longer moving before attempting to pass underneath.
#3: Garage Doors Are Not Toys: Teach your children that the garage door is not a toy and that they should never play with the door’s remotes or push buttons. Warn them of the dangers playing underneath a door can cause. Also warn them of getting to close to a moving garage door.
#4: Door Not In Sight?: Not safe! When opening and closing your automatic garage door, you should always watch the door until it has completed its full operation. A few seconds of your time is all it takes to ensure no person or animal gets caught.
#5: Does Your Door Automatically Reverse?: Since 1993, all garage door openers manufactured within the U.S. must include a safety reversing feature called photoelectric eyes, which allows the door to automatically reverse should something break their invisible beam.
The photo eyes should not be installed higher than six inches above the floor.
Here’s how you can test this feature: With the door fully open, place a one-inch board on the floor, directly centered under the garage door. Now activate the door to close. Upon striking the board, the door should automatically reverse. If it doesn’t, it may need repair or replacement.
#6: Keep All Remotes And Wall Buttons Out Of The Reach Of Children: Push buttons, remotes, and key-fobs should be kept at of the reach of children at all times. Push buttons should be located five feet off the ground to prevent children activating the door.