Traumatic asphyxia—fatal accident in an automatic revolving door

Abstract

Due to continuing modernisation, the number of automatic doors in routine use, including powered revolving doors, has increased in recent years. Automatic revolving doors are found mostly in department stores, airports, railway stations and hospitals. Although safety arrangements and guidelines concerning the installation of automatic doors are in existence, their disregard in conjunction with obsolete or incorrect installation can lead to fatal accidents. In this report, a 19-month-old boy is described whose right arm was caught between the elements of an automatic revolving door. As a direct result of rescue attempts, the child's body was drawn further into the narrow gap between elements of the door. To get the boy's body out of the 4-cm-wide gap between the fixed outer wall of the revolving door and the revolving inner, back-up batteries had to be disconnected so as to stop the electrical motor powering the door. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation was begun immediately after the rescue but was unsuccessful; the child was declared dead at the hospital he was taken to. The cause of death was a combination of compression-related skull and brain injury together with thoracic compression. This case shows an outstanding example of the preventive aspect as a special task of forensic medicine. Additionally, it serves as a warning for the correct installation and use of automatic revolving doors. Even so, small children should not use these doors on their own, but only with an alert companion, so as to prevent further fatal accidents of this sort.

Deaths Associated With Community Donation Bins: A Ten-Year Retrospective Review Describing Five Cases in British Columbia and Ontario

“…(3) Industrial accidents and farm accidents also represent a significant number of cases of compression asphyxia. (1) In the city-setting, hazards may include revolving doors,(4) weight lifting apparatus,(5) or as we have described here, donation bins. Additionally, compression asphyxia may result from sustained external chest compression due to the weight of another individual(6) or from the weight and positioning of one’s own body, as described in cases of positional asphyxia (7).…”

“…This may take the form of a heavy weight compressing the neck, chest, abdomen, or wedging of the body within a narrow space (1). This phenomenon as a cause of death has been observed due to compression against inanimate objects, for example, within a crushed motor vehicle (2), car doors (3), revolving doors (4), bar bells (5), or from sustained external chest compression by another individual (6).…”

Traumatic asphyxia in the young

“…The recent report by Cortis et al provides a comprehensive overview of traumatic/crush asphyxia as well as drawing attention to potential dangers to young children from automatic revolving doors [1]. The authors demonstrate the key role that forensic pathology can play in identifying dangerous situations and devices, and in disseminating this information to the wider professional community [2].…”