Worker fatally injured by gate

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.