The 2019 death of a Marin County child has fueled state legislation that proposes stronger safety guidelines for large, rolling gates across the state.
Assemblymember Damon Connolly introduced Assembly Bill 2149, or “Alex’s Law,” to the state Legislature on Tuesday. Connolly, a Democrat who lives in San Rafael, named the bill after Alex Quanbeck, a 7-year-old child who was crushed by a 300-pound rolling gate that broke at his school in San Rafael.
“The tragedy of Alex Quanbeck’s death was both heartbreaking and preventable, and his story has touched our community,” Connolly said in announcing the bill. “Strengthening gate safety measures addresses preventable tragedies by ensuring that if a gate’s structure fails, there will be additional safety measures protecting children from being crushed.”
If the bill is adopted, then any vehicular gate or wheeled gate that’s more than 4 feet wide and 7 feet high must meet new safety standards. Such standards require that a gate cannot fall more than 45 degrees from a vertical plane when it’s detached. A gate also can’t move under its own weight, its rolling wheels must be covered, and it needs a “positive stop” or a component that stops the gate from moving.
Owners would also be required to have their regulated gates inspected for safety by July 1, 2025, and then have a professional reinspect their gates once every five years. If an inspector determines that a gate threatens safety, then it can’t be used until it’s repaired by a licensed contractor.
The gate that killed the child at Mark Day School was reported to be poorly designed and maintained. Alex tried to close the gate to stop his ball from rolling into a vehicle alley, but the gate’s wheels broke away from the rails, causing the gate to fall on him.
His parents Eric and Dayna Quanbeck settled a wrongful death lawsuit with the school two years after the incident. They also campaigned to have local governments adopt gate safety measures in Marin County.
Since 2022, such measures were adopted by the county government as well as the municipalities of San Rafael, Tiburon, San Anselmo, Larkspur and Belvedere.
San Rafael was the county’s first city to require gate safety requirements in its building code. Mayor Kate Colin said her city’s ordinance laid the foundation and initial research for Connolly’s bill.
“While San Rafael is proud that our local legislation is the catalyst for a statewide bill, we will always be deeply saddened by the tragedy of Alex’s death,” she said.
The child’s parents proposed the idea of AB 2149 to Connolly at his Sacramento office last summer, Eric Quanbeck said. They discussed their son’s death as well as other deadly gate incidents.
“He immediately jumped on board and said, ‘We need to make this a state law,’” Eric Quanbeck recalled.
He mentioned the November incident in which a 9-year-old student died after a faculty member closed a gate that then fell on her at a school in Tucson, Arizona. Quanbeck said that the school had submitted a work order for gate repairs earlier, but they didn’t happen.
“What we really want to do with this law is to use it as an awareness mechanism so people understand the need to have these gates designed properly and, more importantly, maintained,” he said.
He said that installing false stop devices on gates are a simple, affordable fix.
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Following their son’s death, he and his wife founded the Hummingbird Alliance, which promotes school safety. The group’s name was inspired by a moment when Dayna Quanbeck was going on a work trip to New York and told her son that if something happened to her then she will return as a hummingbird and watch over him. He replied that he will also come back as a hummingbird if something happened to him. Alex died a few weeks later.
Dr. Matthew Willis, the county’s public health officer, said he still has a vivid memory of Alex’s death.
“This is a good example of how legislators can protect public health by adding a new layer of protection when we see failures like this,” he said of AB 2149. “It’s inspiring to see parents like Alex’s, who have the courage to step forward to make our schools safer for everyone.”
John Carroll, Marin County’s superintendent of schools, shared his support of the bill.
“We applaud Assemblymember Connolly for introducing this important legislation, and especially Dayne and Eric Quanbeck for their advocacy and initiative they have taken with the Hummingbird Alliance in honor of Alex,” he said.
Beside the bill, Eric Quanbeck said that his organization desires federal safety regulations on gates. It also plans to work with the American Fence Association to launch a campaign to promote gate safety policies in other states.
“The idea would be don’t wait until a state law or a national law is passed for these requirements,” he said.
AB 2149 is scheduled to be heard in a Assembly committee on March 8, according to the legislative calendar.
