Following on from the new safety requirements with windows, BPN looks into what measures can be taken to provide safe doors.
One of the biggest safety concerns relating to doors is getting fingers trapped and broken in the hinge side of doors, because of the tremendous amount of leverage.
The statistics from Australia are shocking and injuries from getting fingers trapped, can end in amputation.
In Melbourne alone, 900 plus children have door related injuries every year caused by fingers being jammed in doors. A third of these are admitted to hospital with just under 100 requiring amputations.
Children are most at risk, but adults, particularly the elderly, do not escape from the perils of getting fingers trapped and broken in doors.
However, there are specific products on the market to combat this type of injury in the home and hopefully save some of those lost digits.
One example of these safety products is the Fingersafe door hinge guard, which prevents fingers being trapped and actually pushes them out from the door hinges if in there while the door is closing.
Fingersafe on an open door.
It is ideal for use around schools and children’s play areas, such as the fast food restaurant in Bunbury, WA, which ordered Fingersafe for the door to its play area, and Kidsafe House in Brisbane.
While Debbie Kimberly of Fingersafe says anti-finger jamb mechanisms are currently being reviewed and added to the standards for early childhood education centre facilities, it is still up to the individual operator to asses the cost benefit of such protection.
“You will find many unprotected doors in kindergartens, child care centres, and early education centres. Many centres I walk into have protection on selected doors, yet many doors within their centre remain high risk.”
Currently, responses from the NSW Department of Education assure Kimberly that they are committed to providing a safe, supportive and controlled learning environment for all students.
Kimberly says, “In today’s world it is mostly about the liability - the cost to not take preventable measure to protect others from being injured on your property or in your care. Our product was specifically designed for this reason.”
Another safety consideration with doors is to prevent pedestrian accidents near door openings. Doors with glazing panels, such as Optilites from Criterion Industries, are an effective means of satisfying safety requirements.
Criterion Industries' Optilite.
