The potential safety issues associated with powered gates were brought to public attention following the tragic death of two children in separate automated gate accidents in 2010. Since then, much has been done to improve the understanding of the required safety protocol among professionals associated with the powered gate sector.
Herein lies a significant barrier to a future that boasts a heightened standard of safety for any automated gate installation.
Educating the professionals who are involved with what is effectively a ‘machine’ is essential, but what about all the ‘non-professionals’ who have access to the various components required to transform a regular gate into a powered machine?
Regardless of any success we might have in educating those interested in following a professional Code of Conduct and expanding their knowledge of critical safety issues, there will always be a contingency who flout the guidance, instead choosing to pursue an altogether less ethical route.
These individuals are effectively oblivious to the key safety recommendations, and are therefore unable to offer informed counsel.
Gate automation kits: a major barrier to progress
By now the professional installer should – we hope and trust – have been incapable of escaping the plethora of information currently in the public domain in relation to Best Practice for an automated gate installation.
The consummate professional may also have invested in the IOSH-accredited Gate Safe Aware training and the resulting listing on the Gate Safe website which now details Gate Safe Aware-accredited installers.
However, the thorny issue of gate automation kits (which have been available now for in excess of 20 years) remains a major hurdle to achieving enhanced standards within the industry.
A quick browse online will reveal the hundreds of suppliers prepared to sell automation kits to anyone and everyone. The providers of these kits, which are also accessed via electrical wholesalers, remain on the periphery of the gate installation process. As a result, many remain ignorant of the potential safety issues that can ensue following the applications of these products to a regular gate.
All-too-often, the suppliers of such equipment have little or no installation experience and, consequently, no specialist advice or guidance is issued when the item is purchased.
Actual manufacturers of the products are equally at fault as they too have failed to accept the appropriate level of responsibility in relation to the sharing of essential safety protocol, which would go some way towards educating the end user on the dramatic implications of adding power to a gate.
Where safety information has been included it’s normally sub-standard, and merely recommends the inclusion of one pair of photocells which will not provide the required compliant level of protection.
Cutting out the ‘professional custodians’
The bulk of automation kits being sold are supplied with a radio control. This infers that, once the equipment has been installed, the gate will remain in fully automatic mode. This type of gate should always carry the maximum level of protection.
Ironically, one of the leading manufacturers of this type of equipment states in its written ‘Warning to the Installer’ that: “Any repair should be carried out by qualified personnel only”. A shame, then, that the same manufacturer apparently chooses to ignore the logical conclusion that only qualified personnel should also carry out the actual installation?
Given the fact that this manufacturer is opting to sell the kits on a site open to the general public, the potential for failure to observe the high standards recommended to professionals operating in the trade is immense.
For those manufacturers that do fulfil a Duty of Care in publishing some form of guidance, the information supplied is written in technical terms which would not be understood – let alone followed – by the average man on the street.
Our concern is that, in the current climate where every penny counts, we’re going to see a further increase in the sale of gate automation kits as commercial users and members of the public alike seek to save money by effectively cutting out the ‘professional custodian’ of the gate.
Sadly, the reality is that the outcome could potentially prove fatal.
Richard Jackson is the founder of the Gate Safe campaign and CEO of Jacksons Fencing