Anyone enforce any of this ??
Anyone know where the requirements come from??
Martin’s report highlighted many other problems with the way Trail Drive Management Corp., the nonprofit entity that built and operates Dickies Arena for the city, and its contractors installed the gate. For example:
The gate model used at Dickies Arena’s exhibit hall entrances, a California-built DoorKing 9230, is typically used at docks and other industrial areas, and has fewer safety features than gates designed for use in areas accessible by pedestrians.
The gate is equipped with photo sensors to detect obstructions while it is closing, but not while it’s opening.
No sensors were installed on the leading and trailing edges of the gate, as required.
A timer is in place so that after the gate is opened it automatically begins to close after 60 seconds, but there are no audio or visual warnings to let bystanders know the gate is about to move.
Warning signs were installed on the gate in two languages — English and French, but not Spanish.
No alternate pedestrian entrance is in place for the exhibit hall. National standards mandate that when this type of gate is installed in an area accessible by pedestrians, a second entrance for pedestrians and cyclists must be available.
The gate motor didn’t include a clutch pad or rotation sensor, which would release pressure on the gate’s gears in the event of an obstruction. Or, Martin wrote, if a pad or sensor was in place, it didn’t work.
The gate was set to operate moving at one foot per second, and to start immediately upon activation. A “soft-start” feature would have allowed the gate to begin moving slowly for several seconds before ramping up to its optimum speed of one foot per second. That might have given Julian time to free his arm from the metal bars — but that feature wasn’t used or didn’t work properly.
Safety motion detectors were not present.
Safety loops were embedded in the driveway under the gate to detect large objects such as automobiles, but those loops weren’t sensitive enough to detect the presence of a human.
The gate is missing a mandatory emergency stop button.
Read more here: https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/fort-worth/article239293728.html#storylink=cpy
An electronic gate that crushed a man outside Dickies Arena was equipped with safety features that could have prevented his death but those features were defective or not properly used, a nationally recognized expert has concluded.
The preliminary report also shows at least 14 mistakes were made in the installation of the gate machinery outside Fort Worth’s new 14,000-seat arena. It is the proud centerpiece of the annual Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo, which began Friday and continues daily through Feb. 8.
Juan Carlos Julian Jr., 24, an employee of a company that provides cleaning crews for Dickies Arena, suffocated after becoming trapped between the gate’s metal bars. Julian, who apparently had been locked out of the building after working his overnight shift in the predawn hours of Dec. 7, reached through the gate to hit an open-close switch to let himself back into the arena — but got his arm caught between the metal bars.
The force of the gate’s electronic motor crushed him against a brick pillar. He died alone and in the dark, with his body left in a standing position wedged between the gate and pillar, until a security guard making his rounds outside Dickies Arena discovered Julian’s body at daybreak — nearly three hours later — and called 911.
Julian’s family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Trail Drive Management Corp., which is the nonprofit organization that runs Dickies Arena for the city. The lawsuit also names two contractors who built the $540 million arena, The Beck Group and TDIndustries.
Officials from Trail Drive Management Corp. and the contractors have declined to comment on matters related to Julian’s death, citing the lawsuit.
“It’s a tragedy, and our hearts go out to the family,” said Sheri Tillman, general counsel for TDIndustries, which served as a mechanical subcontractor on the project.
As part of that lawsuit, Kenneth Martin, a licensed gate contractor and voting member of the Underwriters Laboratories technical panel that determines national safety standards for gates and doors, was hired to examine the gate where Julian was killed. Martin was hired by Domingo Garcia, a Dallas attorney representing Julian’s family.
Martin visited Fort Worth Jan. 8 to inspect and perform tests on the 65-foot wide, sliding iron gate.
One of Martin’s key conclusions was that the gate motor, which is built by DKS DoorKing in California, featured a safety system that should have detected an object stuck in the gates and reversed the motor, which would have given Julian a chance to free himself. But the device either didn’t work or was left in a very low sensitivity setting that didn’t detect Julian’s presence, said Martin, who tested the sensor while he was in Fort Worth.
Martin’s report also concurred with two of the conclusions previously reached by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, which investigated the matter in December and determined that Julian’s death could have been avoided had the gate been installed according to safety measures recommended by the manufacturer and at least two other organizations.
The Star-Telegram review of the gate manufacturer’s installation manual showed that the open-close switch should not have been installed within reach of the gate, because it would increase the possibility someone could try to open the gate from the outside and become trapped in the moving parts.
Also, the Star-Telegram found that the manual warns that if a gate has gaps between the metal bars of more than 2.25 inches — roughly the width of a small child’s arm — a screened wire mesh should be installed to prevent someone from reaching through the bars. The gate where Julian died has gaps larger than 2.25 inches, but no mesh covering.
Those errors went unnoticed despite dozens of inspections in the weeks before Dickies Arena opened to the public, with a Nov. 8 Twenty One Pilots concert.
“The permitting and inspection process should have caught an improperly-constructed gate at the city’s new arena,” Sriram Villupuram, an associate professor of finance and real estate at the University of Texas at Arlington, told the Star-Telegram. “The city/inspection company should have paid careful attention especially given that it is a commercial facility that will be used by large groups of the public to attend events.”
The Star-Telegram also reviewed more than 100 pages of construction permit and inspection records from Dickies Arena, as well as contracts between the city and the nonprofit organizations created for the project, and found few details about the electronic gates on the property.
Read more here: https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/fort-worth/article239293728.html#storylink=cpy
Anyone know where the requirements come from??
Martin’s report highlighted many other problems with the way Trail Drive Management Corp., the nonprofit entity that built and operates Dickies Arena for the city, and its contractors installed the gate. For example:
The gate model used at Dickies Arena’s exhibit hall entrances, a California-built DoorKing 9230, is typically used at docks and other industrial areas, and has fewer safety features than gates designed for use in areas accessible by pedestrians.
The gate is equipped with photo sensors to detect obstructions while it is closing, but not while it’s opening.
No sensors were installed on the leading and trailing edges of the gate, as required.
A timer is in place so that after the gate is opened it automatically begins to close after 60 seconds, but there are no audio or visual warnings to let bystanders know the gate is about to move.
Warning signs were installed on the gate in two languages — English and French, but not Spanish.
No alternate pedestrian entrance is in place for the exhibit hall. National standards mandate that when this type of gate is installed in an area accessible by pedestrians, a second entrance for pedestrians and cyclists must be available.
The gate motor didn’t include a clutch pad or rotation sensor, which would release pressure on the gate’s gears in the event of an obstruction. Or, Martin wrote, if a pad or sensor was in place, it didn’t work.
The gate was set to operate moving at one foot per second, and to start immediately upon activation. A “soft-start” feature would have allowed the gate to begin moving slowly for several seconds before ramping up to its optimum speed of one foot per second. That might have given Julian time to free his arm from the metal bars — but that feature wasn’t used or didn’t work properly.
Safety motion detectors were not present.
Safety loops were embedded in the driveway under the gate to detect large objects such as automobiles, but those loops weren’t sensitive enough to detect the presence of a human.
The gate is missing a mandatory emergency stop button.
Read more here: https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/fort-worth/article239293728.html#storylink=cpy
An electronic gate that crushed a man outside Dickies Arena was equipped with safety features that could have prevented his death but those features were defective or not properly used, a nationally recognized expert has concluded.
The preliminary report also shows at least 14 mistakes were made in the installation of the gate machinery outside Fort Worth’s new 14,000-seat arena. It is the proud centerpiece of the annual Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo, which began Friday and continues daily through Feb. 8.
Juan Carlos Julian Jr., 24, an employee of a company that provides cleaning crews for Dickies Arena, suffocated after becoming trapped between the gate’s metal bars. Julian, who apparently had been locked out of the building after working his overnight shift in the predawn hours of Dec. 7, reached through the gate to hit an open-close switch to let himself back into the arena — but got his arm caught between the metal bars.
The force of the gate’s electronic motor crushed him against a brick pillar. He died alone and in the dark, with his body left in a standing position wedged between the gate and pillar, until a security guard making his rounds outside Dickies Arena discovered Julian’s body at daybreak — nearly three hours later — and called 911.
Julian’s family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Trail Drive Management Corp., which is the nonprofit organization that runs Dickies Arena for the city. The lawsuit also names two contractors who built the $540 million arena, The Beck Group and TDIndustries.
Officials from Trail Drive Management Corp. and the contractors have declined to comment on matters related to Julian’s death, citing the lawsuit.
“It’s a tragedy, and our hearts go out to the family,” said Sheri Tillman, general counsel for TDIndustries, which served as a mechanical subcontractor on the project.
As part of that lawsuit, Kenneth Martin, a licensed gate contractor and voting member of the Underwriters Laboratories technical panel that determines national safety standards for gates and doors, was hired to examine the gate where Julian was killed. Martin was hired by Domingo Garcia, a Dallas attorney representing Julian’s family.
Martin visited Fort Worth Jan. 8 to inspect and perform tests on the 65-foot wide, sliding iron gate.
One of Martin’s key conclusions was that the gate motor, which is built by DKS DoorKing in California, featured a safety system that should have detected an object stuck in the gates and reversed the motor, which would have given Julian a chance to free himself. But the device either didn’t work or was left in a very low sensitivity setting that didn’t detect Julian’s presence, said Martin, who tested the sensor while he was in Fort Worth.
Martin’s report also concurred with two of the conclusions previously reached by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, which investigated the matter in December and determined that Julian’s death could have been avoided had the gate been installed according to safety measures recommended by the manufacturer and at least two other organizations.
The Star-Telegram review of the gate manufacturer’s installation manual showed that the open-close switch should not have been installed within reach of the gate, because it would increase the possibility someone could try to open the gate from the outside and become trapped in the moving parts.
Also, the Star-Telegram found that the manual warns that if a gate has gaps between the metal bars of more than 2.25 inches — roughly the width of a small child’s arm — a screened wire mesh should be installed to prevent someone from reaching through the bars. The gate where Julian died has gaps larger than 2.25 inches, but no mesh covering.
Those errors went unnoticed despite dozens of inspections in the weeks before Dickies Arena opened to the public, with a Nov. 8 Twenty One Pilots concert.
“The permitting and inspection process should have caught an improperly-constructed gate at the city’s new arena,” Sriram Villupuram, an associate professor of finance and real estate at the University of Texas at Arlington, told the Star-Telegram. “The city/inspection company should have paid careful attention especially given that it is a commercial facility that will be used by large groups of the public to attend events.”
The Star-Telegram also reviewed more than 100 pages of construction permit and inspection records from Dickies Arena, as well as contracts between the city and the nonprofit organizations created for the project, and found few details about the electronic gates on the property.
Read more here: https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/fort-worth/article239293728.html#storylink=cpy