Safety campaigners are again highlighting deaths and serious injuries caused by incorrectly installed and poorly maintained automated gates. Gate Safety Week is being held on October 10 to 16 this year. It will be underpinned by the campaign slogan – Safe Gates Save Lives. The campaign is being run by the Door & Hardware Federation (DHF), whose Powered Gate Group represents the UK powered gate industry. The aims:
To educate specifiers, merchants, installers, inspectors, surveyors and users in the correct specification, supply, installation and operation of powered gates;
To highlight the liabilities and responsibilities of those who specify, install, maintain and use powered gates; and
To emphasise the importance of ensuring a powered gate is correctly CE marked and has been installed in accordance with the latest industry code of practice governing safety.
Summer 2016 saw the launch of a new industry code of practice designed to reduce the safety risks associated with powered gates and traffic barriers to as low as is reasonably practicable. All DHF members must abide by the code of practice (DHF TS 011:2016) which provides a framework to ensure a gate is safe and therefore complies with the law.
The National Security Inspectorate (NSI) is using DHF TS 011:2016 to audit installers and maintainers in its new powered gates certification scheme. NSI, the UKAS-accredited certification and inspection body which audits security and safety providers, hopes to announce the first accredited companies under its scheme during Gate Safety Week.
More than 700 powered gate installation engineers have been through the DHF’s safety training scheme. DHF CEO Bob Perry said: “In recent years there have been nine deaths in the UK and Ireland – six adults and three children – several serious injuries and countless near misses in tragic accidents involving badly installed and poorly maintained powered gates and barriers. Properly installed and maintained powered gates are perfectly safe to use. But it’s estimated that only 30 per cent of the 500,000 automated gates in service in the UK are, in fact, safe.
“As an industry we’re not prepared to tolerate this situation, which is why all the leading manufacturers, installers and maintainers of automated gates are throwing their weight behind this important initiative. We also welcome the support of the NSI for this year’s Gate Safety Week. Our campaign will hammer home the message that automated gates in schools, public buildings, industrial and commercial premises and on residential driveways should be checked by qualified engineers for safe operation.”
For guidance on gate safety and to learn more about the legal obligations of powered gate specifiers, installers and users, and to find out how gates can be checked, visit: www.gatesafetyweek.org.uk.
