Fullerton Boy Was Latest Fatality : Safety Experts, Industry Focus on Preventing Garage Door Deaths

When a garage door equipped with an automatic opener trapped 7-year-old James Lee by the neck and killed him last month, the Fullerton boy became the 24th youngster to die in such an accident in the United States since 1981.

The deaths in 16 states all involved children under the age of 12, and most were between 6 and 8 years old, according to the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission.

“It’s a spooky thing . . . like having a guillotine in your house,” said Gordon L. Roberts, a Salt Lake City attorney who in 1983 won a $1-million settlement for a 6-year-old boy who suffered brain damage after a garage door pinned him across the back, cutting off the flow of oxygen to the brain. “I think people don’t realize how dangerous they are, particularly for little children.”

While other household items are more common causes of injury and death among children, garage door openers have in recent years been the focus of concern by both manufacturers and safety experts outside the industry.

Revised Standard

“We have been very aware of the entrapment problems,” said John Drengenberg, a spokesman for Underwriters Laboratories (UL), a major private testing firm in Northbrook, Ill., which gives its stamp of approval to products it has deemed safe. “And for that reason, we undertook a complete revision of our standard in April of 1982.”

The revised standard requires that a downward-moving door reverse if it meets an obstruction and is in contact with the object for more than two seconds. “As a backup, if for some reason something should go wrong, the door must automatically reverse if it hasn’t fully closed in 30 seconds,” Drengenberg said.

Carl Blechschmidt, a project manager for the Consumer Product Safety Commission in Washington, said that the force of the closing door has been limited to 100 pounds or less, an amount that “might crack a rib or be uncomfortable, but hopefully get us out of the fatality range.”

“With the new standard, we think the entrapment problem will go away,” Blechschmidt said.

Prior to 1982, the amount of force was unrestricted and could have been as much as 500 pounds, Blechschmidt said. “The garage door mechanism was designed so that if it came down on the hood of a car, it would only dent it and move back up.”

Police who investigated the James Lee case say they believe the boy may have forgotten something in the house and tried to get back inside as the door closed, pinning him by the neck.

Door Had Safety Device

The automatic opener, marketed under the brand name of Safeguard by McKinney Electronics of Costa Mesa and installed when the house was built in 1981, was equipped with a safety device that is supposed to stop and then reverse the door if it strikes an obstruction anywhere along its path down to two inches from the ground. The opener’s control unit was manufactured by Moore-O-Matic West Inc. of Wisconsin and, according to Drengenberg, the firm had received UL listing.

Investigators said they couldn’t determine if the door opener at the Lee house was working properly because it had been destroyed by passers-by trying to rescue the boy. Examination of similar units in neighboring homes showed the safety devices were operating, officers said.

Drengenberg said Underwriters Laboratories also requires that garage door openers come with instructions warning consumers about dangers they should avoid, such as letting children play with the doors, as well as a red tag illustrating how to disconnect the door from its motor in an emergency.

Seeking approval by UL or other private testing companies is strictly voluntary on the part of manufacturers. However, Drengenberg estimated that as many as 98% of the approximately 40 door opener manufacturers submit their products to his firm for testing.

In most instances in which children have been injured or killed by automatic garage doors, they were playing a game, racing back and forth under it while it closed, authorities say. The victims were pinned by the chest or neck.

Apparently Wasn’t Playing

James Lee apparently wasn’t playing, however. With his mother on vacation and his father gone to work, the boy was the last to leave the house to catch a school bus shortly before 8 a.m. He went through the garage to ensure the house was locked.

Laws in some parts of the country, including Los Angeles, require certification by testing organizations such as Underwriters Laboratories before electrical appliances can be sold.

“Those laws can severely limit a manufacturer who doesn’t get a listing,” Drengenberg said. “Your big retailers like Sears, Ward’s and Penney’s won’t consider the product. They don’t want something on their shelves they can’t sell.”

Orange County and Fullerton, where James Lee died, have adopted the national electrical code as a part of their building permit regulations. That code requires that all equipment installed during construction be approved or certified by a recognized testing organization, but the code does not govern the sale of appliances such as door openers.

“We have control over manufacturers or any aspect of the manufacturing of the product,” Drengenberg said. “But once it’s installed, by either the consumers themselves or an installation company, we have no control other than good instructions.”

Maintenance Often Neglected

An industry spokesman said most malfunctions and accidents are a result of improper installation or inadequate maintenance.

“You (should) think of the garage door like you would your automobile,” said Frank S. Fitzgerald, president of the Garage Door Council, a national trade organization. “It’s a large piece of mechanical equipment that needs regular service. . . .

“But that never happens. A person buys a house and often never thinks about maintaining that door. Then 30 years later, it won’t work, and he wonders why.

“Another thing. You wouldn’t let your kids play in the street in front of a car, and you shouldn’t let them play in the driveway under a garage door,” he said.

Beyond the standards established by private testing firms and the industry itself, Fitzgerald said, “product liability is the biggest policeman that exists. If a product gets a reputation of being faulty, no one will buy it.”

Blechschmidt said the Consumer Product Safety Commission has not contemplated formalizing the voluntary safety standards for door openers because the accident rate, compared with accidents involving other devices, is very low.

“I know that sounds bad, but we’re also dealing with all-terrain vehicles, like 3-wheel motor bikes, that injured 66,000 and killed 125 children last year, rideable lawn mowers about the same, as well as structural integrity of baby cribs,” he said.

“With the door openers, though, there are some other things we are considering that may be a way to prevent children from using them,” Blechschmidt said. “It might be something like a protective cover on the control. Of course, that would solve the wall unit problem, but it would still leave the radio control. That’s something that’s hard to control.”

Blechschmidt said his agency will continue to monitor injury and death reports from newly installed garage door openers to determine whether the 1982 standards are sufficient. For now, he added, the agency will continue to issue “product safety alerts” or news releases to the media.

Times Staff Writer Heidi Evans contributed to this story.