Mike Panish receives weekly calls from attorneys about injuries sustained from an automatic door malfunction. The call usually begins with a scenario much like, "My client, who is almost eighty years old, was in a hotel lobby, and as she was walking through the doorway to the parking lot, the sliding doors slammed shut on her, causing her to break her hip." Or, upon entering a revolving door, the door suddenly sped up, and actually trapped a young child between the door panel and the fixed portion of the doorway crushing the boy's arm and shoulder." "
In this article, "The Ins and Outs of Automatic Door Operation", Mike Panish explains how automatic doors work and how to analyze defects vs deferred maintenance. Mike Panish is the leading expert witness and consultant for automatic door injuries in the country.
Automatic door injuries occur more than you would think. Many of the injuries occur in big box stores, department stores, airports, hotels, and casinos.