Take a moment to consider how many times a day your garage door is opened or closed. In an average family, on an average day, probably about eight times. It's opened then closed again when the early bird of the family heads off to work. Then again when the rest of the family heads off to work or school. When the first half of the family gets home, it opens and stays open until the last person gets home, then it's closed. There's likely to be someone opening and closing it again after that, maybe a teen out with friends, or coming home from their evening job. That's just an average day with an average sized family. If we multiply that by 365, we get almost 3,000, roughly how many times it gets used in one year.

Now think about the odds of having an accident with any kind of object. We're humans; we're clumsy! There's a pretty good chance that something being used that often is going to cause some sort of accident at some point. And in fact it does; garage door related accidents happen to hundreds of people each year and many of those people are hospitalized. Those things are heavy.

Now that I've just spent all that time trying to show you the likelihood of a garage door accident, hopefully you're eager to take the necessary steps to prevent them from happening in your own home. If you have children, this information is especially important.

Tips and Suggestions:

• Keep your family educated on how to use the garage door, and make it clear to children in particular that it is dangerous to play with any parts of the garage door or opener.


• Do not go under the garage door, or walk away from it, until it has come to a complete stop.


• Keep the activation buttons high enough so your children can't reach it.


• Keep the remote controls completely secure in a safe place, such as a drawer or high on a hook, when not in use.


• Keep your garage door closed when not in use. Phoenix Garage doors are not designed to stay open all the time, and the torsion springs are more likely to fail when they are being used extensively.


• Test the springs regularly. The best way to do this is to keep it at a half open/half closed position. If the garage door moves by itself in any direction, you need to call a professional to come adjust them.


• Test the sensors regularly. The door should automatically go in reverse even with just a paper towel in the way.


• Test and inspect the rest of the parts regularly as well. Make sure that everything looks and sounds normal. If it doesn't, call a professional to come fix the problem.


• Don't try to fix parts on your garage door by yourself unless you're 100% how to do it, and have done it before. There is a lot of force in those springs and when handled improperly, they can cause some pretty bad accidents. When in any kind of doubt, call a professional.



Contribute to the cause by leaving a comment if you have any other tips on preventing garage door accidents, and sharing with any other family or friends!