Getting your
Trinity Audioplayer ready...New gate safety measures developed after the death of a child in Marin County have been approved by the International Code Council, a building association.
The action also is intended to strengthen maintenance requirements, said Eric Quanbeck, who founded the nonprofit Ready, Set, Safe! with his wife Dayna.
The Quanbecks began advocating for improved standards after a 400-pound gate crushed their 7-year-old son Alex in 2019 during recess at Mark Day School in San Rafael.
“These safety measures represent an important step forward in helping prevent serious injuries and fatalities caused by unsafe gates,” Eric Quanbeck said. “After losing our son Alex, we committed ourselves to making sure stronger safeguards exist for other families.”
The new codes, set to go into effect in 2027, include national safety standards for manual sliding gates and manual swing gates alongside the existing requirements for automatic gates.
The codes affect sites such as schools, parks, apartments and commercial properties throughout the U.S.
“Dayna and I felt an immediate sense of gratitude after hearing that our proposals were approved,” Eric Quanbeck said in a June 2 article in the Building Safety Journal. “The reach of the ICC, on both a national and global basis, gives us confidence that we are making a difference with the work we are doing in honor of Alex.”
The Quanbecks collaborated with the council, the American Fence Association, industry leaders and code experts to develop the codes.
“The American Fence Association is proud to have worked alongside Ready, Set, Safe!, ICC representatives and industry experts to advance these proposals,” said Catherine Mills-Reynolds, an executive at the association.
Incorporating recognized standards into the codes “helps create greater consistency around gate safety, installation and maintenance practices and reflects the industry’s commitment to protecting the public,” Mills-Reynolds said.
Kevin McOsker, an International Code Council vice president, said its “code development process is transparent, consensus-based and inclusive.”
The standards “will help protect the lives of over 2 billion people globally,” he said.
The standards are a suite of coordinated, modern building codes used in all 50 U.S. states and approximately 100 countries.
The updated codes are the latest milestone in the Quanbecks’ efforts to honor Alex’s memory and ensure that other families are protected from similar accidents.
In Alex’s case, he had been playing football with classmates and tried to close the gate to prevent the football from rolling outside. The gate destabilized and collapsed on top of him.
After Alex’s death, the Quanbecks uncovered 48 other serious gate-related injuries and fatalities in the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration records — but no national tracking.
They began advocating for improvements to gate standards in Marin cities and towns, then expanded their work statewide and nationally.
In 2022, the Quanbecks designed and built a playground in Greenbrae to honor their son’s memory and model a safe play area for children.
In 2024, U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman, a San Rafael resident, introduced a bill to create the Alex Gate Safety Act. The federal legislation was recently approved by the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee.