Christmas Day, 2003 is a day that we will not forget. My wife and I, and our two boys (5 years old and three years old) lived in a large house with a circular driveway and two garages. The house was brand new and had all of the latest safety devices required by law – including fire sprinklers and automatic door closers on the heavy fire-rated doors to the garage areas. However, on Christmas night we discovered a terrible safety deficiency in our otherwise wonderful home.
To be honest, we don’t know exactly why or how it happened, but one of the heavy fire-rated doors closed on the fingers of their 3-year-old boy. He screamed and we came running. My wife tried to comfort the 3-year-old, sitting with him on the stairway. But, he would not be comforted. He just cried and cried and cried.
My wife took our son to the emergency room, and, on the way, she reminded him that it was Christmas, and that he could say “Merry Christmas” to the doctors and nurses. This thought proved to be a great distraction, and my wife fondly remembers hearing our son wish a Merry Christmas to everyone he encountered at the emergency room.
When my wife was talking to the head nurse, she mentioned that our son seemed to be feeling better, and that maybe the trip to the emergency room was not warranted after all. The nurse, however, was quick to disagree. She explained that, in these types of accidents, it is very common for the victim to suffer one or more fractures. (Sometime later, we learned of the horrible potential for finger amputations in accidents of this nature.)
Quite fortunately, the x-rays were negative. Our son had not broken any fingers! What could have been a terribly tragic accident, was, after all, only a bad bruise to several little fingers. What a relief! My wife called me and shared the good news.
The next day, I decided to investigate to see what devices were available to prevent this type of injury. While I found a few such products, they were not impressive. All were difficult to install, most were ugly, and some of them didn’t even work. Well, to make a long story short, my family – with a long history in product design and manufacturing – set out to invent a “better mousetrap” to prevent door-finger injuries. Six years later, after numerous and diverse product designs, Carlsbad Safety Products introduced a complete line of door safety products that are effective, elegant, easy to install, and economical.
Over the years, these products have evolved somewhat. But these products have always been innovative and effective. As a consequence, Carlsbad Safety Products is now the leader in its industry. Our products make protecting little fingers easy and affordable. We hope to get our door-safety message out to parents of toddlers so that they can avoid the unpleasant surprise that we experienced on Christmas Day in 2003.