According to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), more than 40,000 individuals in the UK suffer severe injuries, or even risk amputation, from getting their fingers trapped in the middle of a doorway and the door hinges each year. Children, particularly those under the age of five, are afflicted with the most door-related injuries that eventually call for emergency medical care.
Why do door-related accidents occur?
Kids are more curious about their surroundings and are rather erratic. A split second of distraction is enough for them to cause a mess or run critical risks for their safety. A number of trapped finger accidents involving children also come about because of the number of doorways there are – entrance/exit doors, cabinets, garages, wardrobes, sheds, playhouses, etc.
For this reason, it is crucial to eliminate any possibility of safety threats for the kids indoor and outdoor.
How to prevent accidents?
Like other threats kids face each day, finger trap traumas are easily preventable. While there are preventive measures such as automatic doorway closers that decelerate or restrain slammed doors, they are unreasonably expensive. In addition, they can only defend against injuries around the knob side of the door and not the hinge side, which is where most severe finger injuries take place.
This is where door finger guards come in the picture. They are one of the most reliable ways to avoid finger trapping injuries from taking place as they remove the opening between the doorway and the wall. Low-priced, highly effective, simple to install and extremely durable, door finger protectors will easily prevent traumatic injuries such as severed fingers and fractured, crushed or bruised fingers or fingertips. Finger protection products such as hinge cavity products cover the hinge where the doorway is joined to the wall. They are an elongated strip of plastic, simply fitted, that bend with the door when it opens, preventing kids from slotting their fingers in. There is also an anti-door slam device which prevents the door slamming onto fingers. Products such as sliding doorway and hinge pin side finger protector can also effectively restrain finger injuries.
Door-related finger injuries are devastating and possibly exhausting for both kids and adults, but as luck would have it, they are often not too difficult to avoid. Therefore, it is crucial to consider installing door finger protector products on every entrance and exit in your premises so your baby can wander in all directions safely.