I use hurricane reinforced metal garage doors on all my homes. Much stronger than wood, and believe it or not, lighter too. Also, wood would rot out in no time here in the land of repetitive torrential rain events and 95% year round humidity.
FWIW I have bought springs from this place several times, they will also show you upgraded springs for a somewhat higher cost that provide a higher cycle count than the standard springs:
https://ddmgaragedoors.com/index.php
I've changed torsion springs probably 6-7 times, there's a big difference between a spring for a lightweight insulated door (like we have now) and a massive wood door. But with either you just have to be careful. I usually buy new end plate bearings and new lower wheels each time, the bearings can be replaced later under load but the lower wheels need to be replaced while there is no tension.
I have personally seen 2 men with broken forearm bones from replacing the torsion springs on a garage door. Those 2 cases were in a short period too (maybe a month), in one of 3 hospitals in a city of 200,000 people. I might have been working in the emergency department at the time (which I did once a week for 6 months) or on-call, I don't remember which. So significant injuries do occur and my experience suggests they occur at a fairly high frequency.You know (And I'm not being argumentative here) I wonder if it is true that loads of people die every year replacing springs. I myself have heard this repeated over and over, but I've never personally heard it happening, at least in our county.
I'm at work, so I don't have a ton of time to google, but what I'm seeing is.
Garage door injuries caused by broken springs and the door falling on people
Garage door injuries by the 'old' style tension springs, these and being crushed by doors seem to be the most harmful.
Garage door injuries by mis-adjusted or improperly installed openers
What I'm not seeing is anything more than a mention of some broken fingers in one place or some other fairly minor injuries from torsion springs.
I would be genuinely interested in seeing some news stories where someone was seriously injured by a torsion spring. I know not every injury/death is going to be reported in the news or find-able by google, but its data I would really like to see. Just out of curiosity to see if it actually IS a true story or its just something that has been repeated so often that it is quoted as gospel. I mean, it makes sense, there's a lot of potential energy in a wound up spring like that so it makes sense there is fear there.
There was something else the other day that I learned was not true, but an oft repeated warning and now I can't remember what it was