Worker fatally injured by gate
Recently a worker died after a large steel sliding gate fell on him.
There have been numerous crushing incidents throughout Australia where sliding gates have fallen and resulted in serious or fatal injuries. In 2023, there were two incidents in Queensland where the end stop had failed and did not prevent the gate from travelling past the upright support (support post and guides), allowing it to fall.
These findings are not yet confirmed, and investigations are continuing into the exact cause.
Safety issues
Any sliding gate that is manually operated has the potential to apply extremely high forces to the end stop unless the end stop is designed to absorb shock loading. The greater the mass and/or travel speed of any given gate, the greater the force it can apply to its end stops. If a gate moves through (past) its end stop and begins to suddenly move or fall towards someone close by, there is often limited opportunity to avoid being struck.
Automatic sliding gates, powered by an electric motor, can be operated as a manual sliding gate and will be operated this way in the event of a power supply outage. In addition, automatic gates are often operated as manual gates when there is a breakdown in the drive system. For this reason, the risk control measures to prevent gates falling over should be similar for both manual and automatic sliding gates.
Hazards associated with large gates may arise from:
- Gates not having an end stop to prevent the gate moving too far and travelling beyond the top guides (sometimes a top guide is incorporated in a post that extends both sides of the gate).
- Failure to maintain the gate, including top guides, end stops and moving parts.
- Failure to report damaged gates to employer, property owner and/or property manager.
- Failure to have a damaged gate assessed and repaired by a competent person.
- Failure to implement interim risk control measures (e.g. chaining and padlocking a damaged gate up either in the open or closed position).
- Excessive force (gate speed) applied by persons opening/closing the gate (intentionally or otherwise).
- The end stop design not having sufficient energy absorbing properties such as a rubber or spring bumper (e.g. metal on metal) or sufficient strength (e.g. anchor bolt connection) to withstand the forces applied to it.
- Structural failure of the gate or its supports because the design does not consider all foreseeable operational and environmental loads (including wind loading).
Ways to manage health and safety
Effective risk management starts with a commitment to health and safety from those who manage the business. If an incident occurs, you'll need to show the regulator that you’ve used an effective risk management process. This responsibility is covered by your primary duty of care in the Work Health and Safety Act 2011.
Use the hierarchy of controls to help decide how to eliminate and reduce risks in your place of work. The hierarchy of controls ranks types of control methods from the highest level of protection and reliability to the lowest. It’s a step-by-step approach to eliminating or reducing risks. You must work through the hierarchy of controls when managing risks, with the aim of eliminating the hazard, which is the most effective control.
Possible control measures to prevent similar incidents
Business and property owners must control the risks associated with large industrial gates. You must consider various risk controls and choose those that most effectively eliminate or minimise the risk in the circumstances. Managing the risks of operating large industrial gates often involves a combination of controls. These can include but are not limited to the following examples:
- Ensure gates are installed by competent persons and ensure the end stops and guides are in good working order.
- Gates should be inspected regularly for signs of damage.
- When damage occurs, or it is identified that the gate is not working correctly,
- the gate should immediately be tagged-out and the property owner and/or property manager notified.
- Other workers should be alerted to not touch the gate.
- Signage or display should advise anyone else entering or exiting through the gate area, that the gate is not operational and should not be moved.
- Until repairs can be undertaken, control measures must be implemented to keep people away from the damaged gate such as establishing an exclusion zone or erecting temporary barricades.
- The gate should be secured to prevent movement with control measures that are not easily removed i.e. heavy chain and padlock.
- A damaged gate should not be used (e.g. if the gate is required to be moved to provide site security) unless a risk assessment has been carried out and additional control measures can be implemented to ensure that the gate can be manually operated safely.
- Implement new procedures and training of competent worker(s) to lock the gate open or closed, until repair occurs. The procedure may require more than one person to safely move and unlock/lock a damaged gate.
- Consult with the gate manufacturer and supplier/installer regarding repairs, including any improvements that can be made to prevent damage in future, such as more robust end stop designs.
Developing a safe system of work for managing risks associated with sliding gates includes:
- Providing information training and supervision to people who work with large gates.
- Developing safe work procedures that describe the task, identify the hazard and document how the task is performed to minimise any risks associated with working with large gates.
- Where more than one business has responsibility for the same health and safety matters, duty holders should exchange information to find out who is doing what and work together in a cooperative and coordinated way, so risks are eliminated or minimised (either because they are involved in the same activities or share the same workplace).
Sliding gate design to prevent gates falling over
All sliding gates have the ability to be operated manually. End stops on any sliding gate are therefore susceptible to damage when excessive force is used to open or close the gate. This, in turn can lead to a greater risk of the gate falling over when an end stop is broken. The risk control measures detailed in the design of any sliding gate by owners of manual sliding gates therefore need to be more comprehensive.
End stops: Where end stops are provided as the sole risk control measure to prevent a sliding gate falling over, the end stops need to be designed for foreseeable misuse, with an end stop being provided at both ends of travel. Foreseeable misuse includes a person either intentionally or unintentionally opening or closing the gate at speed. The gate manufacturer should be consulted for advice on this issue. Due to the difficulty of designing an end stop to be able to withstand high forces associated with foreseeable misuse, the risk control measure of providing additional top guides, highlighted below, is a preferred risk control measure.
Top guides: Where top guides are provided to address the risk of the gate falling over, there would typically need to be a minimum of three top guides. This would correspond to one top guide at the extremity of travel when opened, one at the extremity of travel when closed and one in the middle so that in any potential position the gate is prevented from falling over by a top guide. The gate would need to be designed so that it cannot travel past any one top guide thereby causing it to fall over (e.g. the gate wheels run off the rail system and into a garden bed and jam and/or the gate butts up against an existing structural wall). Where a gate butts up against a wall it is advisable to provide rubber padding or similar on the wall to minimise damage to the gate and wall. The total number of top guides to prevent the gate falling over, should be based on the advice of the gate designer. The design should take into account all operational and environmental loads that can be applied to the gate, including wind loading.
More Information
- Managing risks of plant in the workplace code of practice 2021 (PDF, 1.57 MB)
- How to manage work health and safety risks code of practice 2021 (PDF, 0.65 MB)
- Managing your drivers' safety at delivery points - Film
- WA Department of Energy, Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety – Safety Alert
- Industrial gate safety | SafeWork NSW
- Industrial gate fatality - 12 June 2020 | SafeWork NSW
Support for people affected by a serious workplace incident
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