Using a garage door can be dangerous, and it's a danger that continues to linger in the United States, despite new safety system technology.
The numbers continue to tell a grim story.
Too many accidents are occurring in the garages of America.
Statistics for 2010, released by the Consumer Product Safety Commission via the NEISS library, estimate there were 20,809 injures in the garage in the United States for the year. That is a slight increase from 20,382 similar injuries in 2009.
The numbers are a compilation of a sampling of hospitals and reports from throughout the United States and cover two categories of injuries related to the garage door, and garage door systems with openers.
“Too many people assume the garage door they buy is safe, when it’s really not,” Dave Martin, chairman of Martin Garage Doors, says of the latest CPSC numbers. He says in many cases safety has been pushed aside in favor of building a cheaper garage door for some manufacturers.
Year
CPSC Report of Garage Door Related Injures*
2010
20,809
2009
20,382
2008
20,017,
2007
19,943
2006
18,781
2005
19,228
2004
19,767
2003
20,005
2002
19,370
2001
20,421
2000
19,608
* CPSC Numbers are generated on a sampling of designated hospitals. Real figures could be higher, or lower. The categories tallied include automatic garage door and garage door openers.
Martin has been considered a crusader within the garage door industry, pushing for new safety initiatives, when the CPSC began to report high number of accidents in the garage, ranging from crushed limbs to some fatalities.
Martin insists the industry can improve its standard in safety, much as the lawn care business did years ago, when lawnmowers were required to come with a safety device, which stops the mower automatically when someone takes their hand off the handle.
In his own case, Martin says his company has included over 20 advanced safety features with a Martin Garage Door, including FingerShield™, which protects fingers from being pinched in the sectional joints of a garage door and a Controlled Descent Device, which is designed to resolve the problem of a failing garage door that could result from a relaxed spring, a broken spring or a lift cable.
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