Garage door spring accidents are incidents that cause injuries or property damage because the spring in a garage door breaks. These incidents can be surprisingly serious. The injuries can even be fatal. However, there are steps that you can take to prevent them. You may have legal recourse if you suffer from a garage door spring accident.
How garage door springs break
The springs in a garage door hold the weight of the door when it is open. They also act as a counterbalance or pulley when you open or close the door. Because garage doors are heavy, weighing up to 400 pounds, that is a lot of heavy lifting. They build corrosion and deteriorate over time and generally have a lifespan of around seven years or 10,000 cycles. The lifespan is shorter in humid conditions.
If the spring breaks, the door will come crashing down. If you are in the doorway when this happens, you will likely get seriously hurt. How a garage door spring can break will depend on the type of spring system it uses. There are 2 kinds:
- torsion springs, and
- extension springs.
Nearly every garage door uses these springs, even if it does not have a remote garage door opener.
Torsion springs
Torsion springs look like metal coils wound tight around a pipe in the inside of the garage, above the door. The pipe slowly spins and either winds or unwinds the coils to lower or raise the door. Eventually, the tension from this coiling and uncoiling will wear down the metal. When they have suffered enough wear and tear, garage door torsion springs will not be able to lift or hold the door up for any longer. When they break, broken torsion springs release lots of tension, which can send shards of metal into the garage.
Because they are generally considered to be the safer option, torsion springs are more common for:
- heavier garage doors, and
- new garages.
Extension springs
Extension springs are loose coils of metal on each side of the garage door, often above the door’s tracks. They stretch out when the door is raised, and contract when it is lowered. They also wear out over time. It can break when the metal is no longer strong enough to hold the door up. The tension on the metal can make a broken spring snap like a whip before falling to the ground. This can be dangerous, in addition to the overhead door coming down.
Extension springs are often:
- used for lighter garage doors,
- found in older garages, and
- the only option for garages that do not have enough headroom for a torsion spring.
How often these accidents happen
While breaking metal springs may seem like they should be a rare occurrence, garage doors are in lots of homes in the U.S. This means that there are lots of opportunities for these accidents to happen. However, the number of injuries has declined substantially in the last couple of decades.
According to ConsumerAffairs:
Sixty-six percent of U.S. households own a garage or carport. In the Pacific Region, Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington lead with the most garages, where 80% of households have a garage or carport. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) reported prior to 2003 that emergency room visits due to garage door injuries were between 20,000 to 30,000 every year. The garage door injury rate has declined dramatically, due to comprehensive standards implemented on January 1, 1993, which all garage door operators sold in the U.S. must adhere to. There have been an average of 42 garage door injuries per year from 2018 to 2022.[1]
Many of these injuries were from problems with the door’s spring.
Injuries caused by broken garage door springs
The injuries caused by a garage door spring accident are often related to the full weight of the garage door falling on the victim. These can lead to severe injuries like:
- head injuries,
- neck injuries,
- back injuries,
- broken bones, and
- internal bleeding.
Extension springs, however, can also act like whips or projectiles when they break. This can cause serious injuries like:
- severe lacerations,
- puncture wounds,
- broken bones and fractures, and
- nerve damage.
In either case, the injuries can be severe enough to become fatal.
In addition to personal injuries, a garage door accident can cause substantial property damage. This is particularly the case if your car or truck was in the doorway or in the garage at the time of the accident. Even if your vehicle was not around, though, the force and trauma of a garage door accident can impact the structural integrity of your garage.
The personal injury lawyers at our law firm have found that the damage done by a breaking garage door spring are often far higher than expected.
How to prevent them
The five best ways to prevent a garage door spring accidents are:
- professional door installation – by having a professional install new garage door springs, it dramatically increases the likelihood that it is done properly and they do not break prematurely,
- install a safety cable – safety cables can be added to garage door systems that use extension springs and can hold the door’s sectionals up if the springs fail,
- regular inspections – you should routinely inspect the garage door springs to look for anything that appears wrong, and should schedule professional inspections and tune-ups around once a year, especially if you use the door everyday and it is approaching the end of its expected lifespan,
- keep children away – you should keep children from playing with the springs, as that can make the metal deteriorate more quickly, and
- regular maintenance by a professional – when something is wrong with the spring, get a professional garage door technician to add lubrication or fix or replace it with a new spring rather than try a do-it-yourself (DIY) repair.
Taking these steps can significantly reduce the odds that you suffer an injury or a fatality from a serious accident.
What to do if you have been hurt
If your garage door’s spring breaks and you get hurt or suffer property damage, you may be able to file a personal injury lawsuit. The claims that you would make in this garage door lawsuit, and who you would sue, would depend on the circumstances.
If a professional negligently installed or maintained your garage door’s springs, then you could sue them or their employer. Their employer would be held vicariously liable, allowing you to recover compensation from the company and its liability insurance coverage.
Our personal injury attorneys have represented numerous clients who have struggled to recover the full amount of compensation that they deserve because they hired an installation professional who did not have insurance. Always make sure that the person installing your garage door is fully insured if you do not want to take this risk.
If the accident occurred because the springs were defective, then you could sue the company that made them. These product liability claims can argue that the springs were:
- defectively designed in a way that was dangerous,
- defectively manufactured in a way that did not meet the design and created a risk of harm, or
- not accompanied with adequate warnings of hidden dangers.
Regardless of the type of lawsuit you file, garage door repair companies and manufacturers often blame homeowners for the spring failure.
[1] Erin Schmidt, “Garage door injury statistics 2024,” ConsumerAffairs (April 3, 2024).
