Do I Need to be Concerned about the Safety of My Family Around My Garage Door?
Q: I don't need to be concerned about the safety of my family around my garage door, do I?
A: Absolutely you do! Garage doors are a moving piece of equipment and when combined with the forces of electric motors, torsion springs and gravity, they can easily injure the unsuspecting.
In fact, the Public Health Agency of Canada conducted a data collection of injuries associated with opening and closing of garage doors between the years 1990-2005 at 14 hospitals in major cities across Canada. Here are their findings:
There were 622 cases of injuries at the 14 hospitals over this period of time with 40% of cases occurring
in patients aged 5-14 years.
39.9% of cases involved “underside of garage door closed or fell onto patient”.
33.3% of cases involved “body part caught in panel of door while opening and closing”.
Other “activities” at time of injury include:
Injured by mechanism of garage door
Patient lifted by door when opening / closing
Injured while repairing garage door
Overall:
30% of the injuries were lacerations
25% were bruise / abrasions
16% were fractures
AND there were 15 cases of amputations that involved a hand, finger or thumb!
It's also important to note that the injuries described here don't represent ALL injuries in Canada, because this report only included those injuries where people were seen at Emergency Departments of the 14 hospitals in the reporting network.
In other words - BE CAUTIOUS AROUND YOUR GARAGE DOOR!
(The full report is available here)