Features ELECTRIC GATES


Faulty electric gates are not only a health and safety hazard but could also lead to a costly insurance claim.


Electric gates are designed to keep residents and their property safe and secure within the confines of a block or development. However,


when they are not fitted correctly or they are poorly maintained things can go badly wrong, as Duncan Brown explains.


In the summer of 2010, two young children died in separate incidents, after being crushed by electric gates on residential developments. One of them, Karolina Golabek died of injuries sustained when she became trapped between the closing edge of a gate and its gate post outside flats near her home.


The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) investigated Karolina’s death. It prosecuted two companies after finding that the electric gate was inherently unsafe and posed a clear risk. Both companies were tried at Cardiff Crown Court in June 2014. It was concluded that Karolina was playing around the gate when it automatically closed after a car passed through. Her body was discovered in the gap between the post and gate a short time later.


The HSE found that the closing force of the gate did not meet European or British Safety Standards. It also discovered dangers with the gate structure, which left space for people to get trapped, and that there were insufficient safety devices that would automatically prevent the gate closing if a person was detected in the area.


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If you own or are responsible for


managing properties with automatic gates you must ensure they are properly maintained


Company A fitted a new electronic motor to the gate when a previous motor had broken. The gate was put back into use despite the fact there were obvious trapping points. Company A also failed to properly test that the gate stopped when it met an obstruction, or test the force that the gate closed with. It was fined £60,000 and ordered to pay £40,000 in costs, after pleading guilty to breaching Section 3(1) of the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974.


Company B was contracted to maintain the gate. Despite carrying out two maintenance visits, one only six weeks before Karolina’s death, it didn’t carry out vital safety checks, including reviewing closing force measurements. Company B was fined £50,000 with costs of £40,000, after it pleaded guilty to the same charge.


After the hearing, HSE Inspector Stuart Charles said, “If you own or are responsible for managing properties with automatic gates you should ensure they are properly maintained. You should also ensure that those carrying out the maintenance are competent to do so.” This tragic case and others involving fatalities, clearly illustrate the potential dangers of electric gates, which now feature on many residential developments. It is therefore vitally important that managing agents, as well as directors and secretaries of RMCs and RTMcos, check that electric gates on their development(s) are properly installed, maintained and repaired.


RMC Directors must do all they reasonably can to make certain that the electric gates they are responsible for are correctly installed or maintained. For example, ignoring the gate manufacturer’s recommended maintenance advice would be considered by the HSE and the courts as ‘failing to act reasonably’.


If anyone responsible for managing residential property is found to be acting negligently where electric gates are concerned, they may find themselves personally liable for losses or, in the worst case scenario, for any personal injury caused as a result of faulty equipment or procedures.


Duncan Brown is an associate solicitor with Oliver Legal in Ipswich.


Issue 21


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