2003 Wife almost squished in sliding door !

[Bob1942]

I have a question about the Odyssey electric sliding doors ... While loading groceries in our 2003 Oyssey my wife had her purse under her arm ... The Keys were in the purse with the keyless Remote ... I was helping ! her to load things When the door started to CLOSE ! on my Wife !... She thought I was fooling around ! But three times it started to close with her half way into the van ! ... I grabbed the door handle and stopped the door BUT then three times it tried to close ! finally I spotted the purse under her arm and looked inside to find the keyless remote and keys in there... We figure She had been pressing the "door close" button inside her purse and did not know it ... MY QUESTION IS ... What sort of safety is built into these doors ! ... Could my wife have been injured ! had I not been there to stop the door ??...

BOB in Michigan

[Glen_T]

Bob,

Not sure on the Honda's, but I suspect it is similar to my Pontiac Montana. There is a sensor that will reverse the door when it senses too much closing force, similar to your garage door opener. However, my manual warns that as the door is right near the end of the travel and the door starts moving rapidly inward, the sensor may not reverse the door. My Pontiac has an alarm that does a "bee-boop-bee-boop" as the door is shutting to warn you it is closing. A nice feature, I thought.

If you want, you could stick something in the door and see if it will close on it, but the way I checked mine was to let it start to close, and then use my hand to prevent it from closing. The door should reverse.

I only worry about little fingers, so we've been really clear with my little ones not to put their fingers in the door if it is closing. I suppose a small child might get hurt a little if their body was in the opening, but I'd be shocked if the OEMs didn't set the force limit low enough to prevent serious injury......hope this helps....Glen

[jcchonda]

Hi Bob,

When we were looking at Odyssey's back in 1999, the dealer was demonstrating the safety feature of the automated sliding door...and when he put himself in the doors way... it DID NOT STOP!

Needless to say, because we had young children, we opted for the manual doors. Today...they stick closed...and can be a real pain to open.

I wonder if anyone has actually been injured by this less than perfect safety feature.

Cara

[Bob1942]

THANK YOU ! For your replies to my question about the sliding doors... I am going to test them by stopping them with my hand and seeing if they will reverse ... I think we need to be very cautious with the electric doors especially when small children are around... Bob in Michigan

[Bob1942]

Originally Posted by Bob1942

THANK YOU ! For your replies to my question about the sliding doors... I am going to test them by stopping them with my hand and seeing if they will reverse ... I think we need to be very cautious with the electric doors especially when small children are around... Bob in Michigan

UPDATE ! My wife went out and tried stopping the door while I was typing the above reply on the computer ... She just came in and said " Yep when you stop the doors they reverse " BOB

[jcchonda]

Like garage doors, it never hurts to test them out on occasion!!