10/23/2026
Always hire a professional, licensed and insured fence and gate company!
October is Gate Safety Month!
Manual metal gates, both sliding and swinging are common around homes, schools, parking lots, businesses, and play areas.
Heavy gates can crush, pin, or strike children and adults when they fall off tracks, swing unexpectedly, or are poorly maintained. Improperly installed gates create deadly entrapment risks.
Whether your gate slides along a track or swings on hinges, it’s important to keep safety a priority every time you open or close it.
Over the past six years, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has identified more than a dozen deaths and injuries involving these hazards.
Consumers, property owners, HOAs, and facility managers should take immediate steps to:
• Inspect and maintain existing gates: Identify and fix pinch points, broken hardware, or instability.
• Keep kids away: Children should never play on or near gates.
• Keep sliding gates on track: Make sure the gate rolls smoothly and stays fully on track and has a bracket to prevent the gate from falling over.
• Reduce entrapment risks: Fix gaps or openings where a child could slip through or get stuck.
Key ASTM Safety Standards
CPSC urges gate installers, property managers, and owners to follow the most current ASTM International gate‑safety standards, including:
• ASTM F900‑25: Swing Gates
• ASTM F1184‑23e1: Horizontal Slide Gates
• ASTM F2200‑24: Automated Vehicular Gate Construction
CPSC encourages school officials, park and recreation authorities, care‑facility regulators, building‑code officials, and property managers to prioritize gate safety, raise community awareness, and ensure gates meet current standards at locations where children and families gather. Together, we can prevent tragedies and keep families safe.
