Safety and Liability - Risk Management as Design Element for Powered Closure Systems

Gate safety, owner liability, and the innovative way in which SmartGate’s design overcomes the limitations of conventional parking gate mechanisms are examined at length in Rich Schineller’s article, Advancing Pedestrian Safety and Risk Mitigation, published in the March 2006 issue of The Parking Professional magazine.

Inherent Danger in Mechanical Access Control Systems

The omni-present danger of bodily injury constitutes a very real vulnerability to liability for operators of automated, controlled-access parking facilities. Mechanical systems depending on preconceived patterns of vehicular traffic without regard for the presence of humans leave themselves open to damages -- essentially because pedestrian behavior cannot be anticipated, and thus cannot meet form factor and time/motion requirements as defined in the access control specification. The only way to control this risk is to provide mechanisms to avert accidental contact with the gates, doors and other moving components of access control systems before it happens.

Pro-active Risk Management by Design

Invisa’s SmartGate® system incorporates pre-emptive safeguards against bodily contact. This is achieved using Invisa's patented InvisaShield™ technology: an invisible field moves with and precedes a dangerous moving object, such as a parking gate, and senses any interposing body or object, in turn sending back a signal instantly to reverse the motion of the object. SmartGate’s fundamental design fulfills the dual function of access control and risk management.

Safety for a Wide-ranging Market

A highly safety-oriented system, SmartGate overcomes the challenges of enabling safe, unattended operation of automated access-control systems. SmartGate is designed for airport parking lots, employee, customer and municipal parking lots, gated subdivisions, condominiums and apartments, entertainment venues, sports arenas, hotels, pay-parking facilities, and any other application where automated access control requires an effective provision of safety for pedestrians, cyclists, children and other, otherwise unprotected passers-by.