Is Your Garage Door Safe?
UPDATED: 9:47 am CDT May 19,
2006
OKLAHOMA CITY -- There's a danger in your home associated with something people probably use every day, more than likely twice a day, television station KOCO reported.It's one of the heaviest moving objects in most homes, and many people even let their children play near it. It's the garage door, and statisticians said the devices account for nearly 18,000 injuries each year.But what can homeowners do to give their garage doors a safety test?Homeowners can do the paper towel test, and it can be done with any automatic garage door, the station said.Place a paper towel at the base of where the garage door would hit when it comes down. The automatic garage door should pop back up whenever it hits anything, including the roll of paper towels.According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, 17,767 people went to an emergency room for garage door injuries in 2004. About 97 percent of them were hurt by non-automatic garage doors.Jefferson Swain can tell you about those."I was standing right here, and the whole thing came down. The whole thing came down," he said.The falling door sheared off the pinky on his left hand, dashing his dream of becoming a concert pianist."I no longer have a finger. I'm very much aware of garage doors. I was lucky it was just my pinky. It could've been my entire arm," Swain said.His garage door was fixed years ago, but Ivette Gamez' was still a hazard. KOCO enlisted the help of Darl Gorum, a technician in the business for 20 years.Right away, Gorum made four adjustments, starting with the emergency cord. He tightened the springs, common with heavy, old, wood doors to keep them from crashing down.Experts suggest people check their garage doors every year. A service call typically costs about $75.
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