Tuesday 13 October 2015

More than 70% of powered gates can cause serious injury or death

 Neil Sampson, Chairman of DHF’s Powered Gate Group

Gate safety campaigners have declared a week of urgent action, starting today, in a bid to dramatically improve the safety of automated gates in the UK. In recent years, three children and three adults have been killed in gate accidents, with more than 70% of the 500,000 automated gates currently in service in the UK, deemed to be unsafe to use.

The alarming statistics have led the Door & Hardware Federation Powered Gate Group (PGG) to announce that this week, October 12th – 18th, will be ‘Gate Safety Week’ – the second year that the high profile campaign has run. In the weeks leading up to the event, the Powered Gate Group and its 100 members - who comprise Britain’s leading manufacturers, suppliers, installers and maintainers of powered automatic gates and gate automation equipment - have been campaigning relentlessly to raise awareness of the dangers associated with poorly fitted and maintained powered gates.

In addition, the Powered Gate Group has just launched a petition in an attempt to have the law changed, as PGG Chairman, Neil Sampson, explains:
“Currently, those responsible for workplace powered gates can face criminal charges, should an accident or fatality occur as a result of a poor installation or maintenance, but this is not the case with domestic gates. We want to see the law changed, so that owners of unsafe domestic gates can also be prosecuted in the criminal courts.” 

“Properly installed and maintained gates are perfectly safe to use, but we are acutely aware that unsafe installations are still being undertaken by uneducated installers and gate companies who, quite simply, are willing to take dangerous short cuts in both gate manufacture and installation. This illegal conduct absolutely must stop!” he said.

“Gate Safety Week 2014 was a resounding success and we are delighted to be running the campaign again this year in a bid to continue to engage, educate and encourage best practise and improved standards throughout our industry. Most importantly, it is hoped that through ‘Gate Safety Week’, accidents resulting from unsafe powered gates will become a thing of the past.”

To access and sign the petition, click here: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/109917




Scroll down to read more articles like this which have been published recently

Why not Sign-up to Receive these Articles by Email each Day

Enter your email address:


Delivered by FeedBurner


* Read more current and archived articles on our dedicated website *

Low Cost and Free Publicity - Your company can easily benefit from some publicity like this in return for a contribution towards our layout costs (typically £30 plusVAT), payable via PayPal or credit card  or receive the service absolutely free of charge if you advertise (see below).

We post articles up to twice a day and never delete them - we only archive them each year so that they continue to remain visible to search engines.

To have your story published - just send us your news item, logo and image(s) and we will review the material, make any necessary changes to the wording / wordcount and then advise you when it will be published.

If you take display advertising or product and literature features in our printed and online publications, you will qualify for regular free postings on this blog while you continue to advertise with us.

For details on features and advertising rates please contact us or visit our website.

Door Industry Journal is a trading style of Avalon Innovations LLP Company Registration No. 06807833

No comments: