8
Sep
2015
By Calvin at 08:50 GMT, 10 years ago
In the past 10 years 3 adults and 3 children have been killed by dangerous powered gates along with countless injuries and near misses! Unfortunately a lot of people, both owners and users, don’t realise that the safety of these gates is required by law.
The campaign has estimated that there are over 500,000 powered gates in service across the UK and of these only 10% of them are actually safe!
Gate Safety Week, which will be happening from 12 to 18 October 2015, has been organised by the Door and Hardware Federation (DHF) Powered Gate Group to create awareness around the installation and maintenance of powered gates; drawing attention to specific issues such as poor installation and maintenance.
The campaign is aimed to educate and inform both professional installers, industry contacts and the general public on the dangers centred around poorly installed and maintained powered gates, in addition to how to report an unsafe gate and what to look for.
The Key messages of this campaign are:
- To encourage a user/owner to ask a specialist to check the operation and condition of their powered gates and report those that aren’t satisfactory.
- To provide a neutral platform for organisations with common interests in the powered gates and powered gate industries.
- To engage and educate specifiers, merchants, installers, inspectors, surveyors and users in the correct specification, supply, installation and operation of powered gates.
- To ensure that installers and maintenance companies are aware that the safety of powered gates is required by law.
- To highlight the liability and responsibilities that apply to powered gate installers.
- To raise the importance of CE marking and what the DHF’s coveted ‘Safety Assured Mark’ means.
- Powered gates can be dangerous and Gate Safety Week is about education, prevention and raising awareness.
So, if you are the owner of a powered gate or use one, perhaps at work, please visit the Gate Safety Week website and start by reading this page.
Quite simply the message is: ‘Got a Gate, Get it Checked!’
This is an important campaign and I would appreciate it if my police and Neighbourhood Watch followers would re-post this message to reach an even wider audience.
Source: Gate Safe Week Website http://gatesafetyweek.org.uk/
