Campaigners aim to boost powered gate safety

The Door & Hardware Federation Powered Gate Group has declared October 12 - 18 to be Gate Safety Week. Campaigns and activities during the week, and in the months leading up to the event, will hammer home a key message. All those responsible for automated gates - owners, maintainers, installers - must ensure the gates are safe to use.

In recent years, three children and three adults have been killed in gate accidents. It is estimated there are more than 500,000 automated gates in service in the UK, yet it is estimated just 30 per cent of these are safe to use.

Neil Sampson is chairman of the DHF Powered Gate Group which represents Britain's leading manufacturers, suppliers, installers and maintainers of powered automatic gates and gate automation equipment. He said: "Properly installed and maintained gates are perfectly safe to use - but the majority of them still do not comply with current legislation and are potentially dangerous. Up to 70% of automated gates in use could be unsafe. This proportion is thankfully falling as installation standards in the industry continue to rise, due to responsible manufacturers and installers joining our campaign.

"But we're acutely aware there's much more work for us to do - hence our decision to hold another Gate Safety Week event this year. The campaign is all about raising awareness of the dangers of using poorly installed and maintained power gates in the hope that we can prevent any further deaths or injuries.

"We are also aware that unsafe installations are still being carried out by uneducated installers and gate companies who are quite willing to take dangerous short cuts in both gate manufacture and installation. This is something that, as an industry, we can no longer tolerate and by informing specifiers, owners and users alike, we will stop this."

Last year's Gate Safety Week campaign successfully got the message across to many thousands of gate owners and those responsible for specifying, managing and maintaining automatic gates.

This year, in the run up to Gate Safety Week, members of the 95-strong DHF Powered Gate Group will be holding events to focus attention on gate safety.

Also, the campaigners will be partnering with a number of influential organisations in the safety, enforcement, inspection, education and security sectors. These organisations are pledging their support to the campaign and will be helping spread awareness of the importance of gate safety.

More details on the campaign are available from www.gatesafetyweek.org.uk. The Gate Safety Week help line number is 01827 52337.