Your garage door is the largest moving object in your home — and it has killed dozens of children. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is aware of 62 deaths and 49 injuries to children under 15 years of age associated with automatic garage doors and garage door openers between March 1982 and November 1996 alone. Many of the children who died were believed to have been playing what has been called “the garage door game” — activating the door control and darting underneath as it closes — and were pinned under the door when it failed to reverse.
How Entrapment Happens
A garage door can entrap a child or adult if the automatic reverse feature fails to work properly. All residential garage door operators manufactured on or after January 1, 1991 are required by federal law to meet entrapment protection requirements, including an automatic reversing system that reverses a downward moving door within two seconds of contacting an obstruction. However, older openers — particularly those manufactured before 1982 — may only stop when they strike an object rather than reverse, and cannot be adjusted or repaired to provide adequate safety.
What You Should Do Right Now
- Test your garage door opener’s reversing feature every month. Place a 2-inch wooden block flat on the floor in the door’s path. If the door does not promptly reverse upon striking the block, the opener needs repair or replacement.
- Replace any opener that does not have an automatic reverse function immediately. Openers without this feature should not be used.
- Keep remote controls locked in the car’s glove compartment at all times and out of children’s reach.
- Relocate wall-mounted push-button controls as high as practical above the garage floor so children cannot reach them.
- Never allow children to play in the garage or near the garage door.
- Always operate the garage door opener only when the door is in full view and free from any obstruction.
- Teach children about garage door safety and make clear the door is not a toy.
For Additional Protection
Consider installing an optional automatic “electric eye” sensor at floor level. This photoelectric sensor reverses a closing door whenever any object crosses the door’s path, providing an additional layer of protection beyond the standard reversing mechanism.
To report a dangerous garage door opener or a product-related injury, visit SaferProducts.gov or call CPSC’s Hotline at 800-638-2772.
