Playgrounds must be built with proper structural design and planning to ensure that every child in the community has a great childhood, from the fun exploration experience to the health benefits that playing can give them.
While you let them soar freely in their childhood, safety is also a primary concern, and there are monitoring checklists that you can read, especially when you go to public playgrounds, to keep them away from harm. The same goes for private playgrounds as well.
COMMON PLAYGROUND SAFETY HAZARDS AND PREVENTIONS
INADEQUATE SURFACING
POORLY MAINTAINED EQUIPMENT
INAPPROPRIATE EQUIPMENT DESIGN FOR AGE GROUPS
INADEQUATE SUPERVISION
ENTRAPMENT HAZARDS
HOT SURFACES AND EQUIPMENT
TRIPPING HAZARDS
MOVING EQUIPMENT HAZARDS
PLAYGROUND ACCIDENT
KEY PREVENTION MEASURES
CONCLUSION
COMMON PLAYGROUND SAFETY HAZARDS AND PREVENTIONS
When you go to playgrounds, especially public ones, you must understand the common hazards you may encounter. Fortunately, there’s always a way to prevent mishaps and ensure a safe play environment for children to explore.
INADEQUATE SURFACING
Surfacing is an essential feature of a playground, designed to protect a child from the dangerous impacts of falling. Incorrect surfacing material and depth requirements can be hazardous and can cause severe injuries from complex fall accidents; this includes:
Concrete
Asphalt
Packed earth
Grass
PREVENTION
Fall surfacing materials must be appropriately installed and follow the correct depth requirement for safety. This includes;
Rubber Mulch
Engineered Wood Fiber
Wood Chips
Poured-in-Place Rubber
Sand
POORLY MAINTAINED EQUIPMENT
Playground equipment not monitored regularly can lead to incidents and increase the risk of injuries to children, which, even to the smallest detail, can bring harm to them.
Rust, cracks, splinters, worn-out equipment, and loose bolts, screws, and fasteners can lead to cuts and falls.
Peeling paints and coating can get stuck in one’s eye, leading to more injuries.
The poor condition of playground chains and ropes can result in falls and cuts.
Unchecked condition of slides, seesaws, and other playground equipment can lead to injuries, bone fractures, and falls.
PREVENTION
Playgrounds regularly check and maintain every piece of playground equipment, just like how we hold and check the fuel in our cars. A monitoring checklist must be ready to check everything in the area.
INAPPROPRIATE EQUIPMENT DESIGN FOR AGE GROUPS
Children love to explore and challenge themselves to try new adventures that sometimes are not appropriate for their age and not very safe to play on; lack of supervision can lead to the risk of serious injuries.
PREVENTION
Properly separating playgrounds according to age groups is an essential factor, considering each age group’s skills and physical abilities, and it requires proper supervision.
INADEQUATE SUPERVISION
Children may act harshly without proper supervision; misusing equipment can harm them.
PREVENTION
Active supervision is a joint responsibility of the staff and parents or caregivers to ensure children’s safety. Supervision is for the staff who know the equipment better and enforce rules and for the parents or caregivers who guide their children as they play.
ENTRAPMENT HAZARDS
Narrow opening spaces and gaps between playground equipment, guardrails, and other structures are common entrapment hazards for head and necks.
Personal accessories or loose clothing can also cause the playground equipment to get entangled.
Ropes not adequately anchored or installed can entangle children’s bodies, arms, legs, and necks.
Children’s feet can be trapped between spaces and gaps from climbing structures or in between moving parts.
Small spaces and gaps can also trap fingers and hands from rotating equipment and small spaces between parts of play structures.
PREVENTION
Proper installation and regular checking of playgrounds can prevent the buildup of entrapment hazards and minimize the risk of injuries with appropriate supervision.
HOT SURFACES AND EQUIPMENT
High temperatures on playgrounds can be a hazard, especially during summer. Children can be exposed to burns due to hot surfaces in playground equipment, dehydration, heat exhaustion, fatigue, and sunburn due to increased sun exposure.
PREVENTION
Playgrounds must have shaded nets for equipment, shaded areas to reduce sun heat exposure that causes injuries, and a water station to encourage hydration.
TRIPPING HAZARDS
Tripping accidents are also a common cause of falls and injuries, and they include;
Exposed tree roots and natural elements like rocks, uneven ground
Loose and broken equipment parts
Worn out surfaces
Protruding edges and obstacle
Cluttered play areas
Inadequate surfacing maintenance
PREVENTION
Proper surface maintenance, clearing pathways, and checking surfacing can help prevent tripping injuries, and caregivers must encourage children to be more careful.
MOVING EQUIPMENT HAZARDS
Moving equipment can be hazardous if the playground’s structure is not correctly installed, planned, or designed according to standards.
Proper spacing is one thing to consider if the equipment moves because it can accidentally crush or pinch children while playing. Impact injuries can be caused when children run while other children are in swings, zip lines, or rotating equipment. Inappropriate use of moving equipment can cause falling, slipping, or can be thrown off the equipment.
PREVENTION
Install the equipment with the proper spacing and posted safety rules for caregivers. The playground must be planned, designed, and installed correctly to prevent moving-hazard injuries.
PLAYGROUND ACCIDENT
FALL ACCIDENT DUE TO INADEQUATE SURFACING
https://youtu.be/Cta6Z1-cEP0?si=k70eNm7NkrFqslvV
This accident resulted in the death of an eight-year-old boy child after falling on a slide in a playground at Stansbury Park Elementary School approximately 7 feet off the ground. The main problem was the playground, which had a rock-solid mulch surfacing with a 1-inch depth of rubber mulch surfacing from the 9-inch minimum inch depth required.
ROPE ENTANGLED ON A CHILD’S NECK
https://youtu.be/2XLaPF3_DnI?si=AKZefxqqc_Z0QbNs
A 3-year-old was hurt after a rope tangled around her neck and died in the daycare around South Solberg Avenue.
TREE LIMB FALL ACCIDENT
https://youtu.be/p6X734eAJf8?si=-n82thUXg2VmXw6T
A tree limb accidentally falls on a mother and a child while having playtime in a newly opened playground, resulting in severe injuries to the mother’s leg, which is broken in 3 places, and she needs therapy to be able to walk again.
CHILD HIT BY E-BIKE
https://youtu.be/K_0k834vPhE?si=HPSfFvVmX0KgiyUx
An e-bike hit a young kid as she accidentally stepped onto the cycling pathway where the parents blamed the design of the local playground, which is very unsafe.
NEARLY STRANGLED KID BY ROPE MADE KID UNCONSCIOUS
A 7-year-old from Winnipeg boy was nearly strangled by an unanchored rope, which made him unconscious. The child was okay, but the traumatic experience still haunted his parents.
DIED FROM FALLING FROM THE SWING SET
https://youtu.be/9XcHBHbFohM?si=tHnRHquzI2b9sil2
A 7-year-old kid died from falling from the swing swing set in an elementary school playground in Vancouver, Canada. The night after falling, the kid complained to her parents that she was dizzy and later died at the hospital.
SWING HIT OVER A KID’S HEAD AND DIED
A 6-year-old girl died from an impact when a playground swing hit her at the back of her head, mom says that the girl was playing when she slipped off the swing, and the swing’s hard plastic seat snapping her head hard led to her death.
A “DEATH TRAP” SLIDE CLOSED AFTER A TODDLER INJURED
Pontefract Park ‘death trap’ slide shut after toddler injured (bbc.com)
A kid fell off the slide and landed badly. His head and neck landed first, and then he rolled down the hill. Other kids stuck his arms, and some broke his nose from playing that slide. That’s why they call is the “Death Trap” slide.
BOY GOT INJURED AFTER BEING ENTANGLED BY A ROPE
https://youtu.be/n-2rgj7ERuU?si=zGiP9_ZP2s3k1yWL
An elementary young boy was critically injured after being entangled in a jump rope while playing at a home playground.
LITTLE GIRL DIED ENTANGLED BY A ROPE
https://youtu.be/6MPjWYfQAwc?si=cArZLHZ14hMPavj8
A 3-year-old kid died after being entangled by a rope around her neck while playing at their community playground in Richmond, MO. Neighbors tried to help, but there was no sign of foul play, and it could have been prevented.
KEY PREVENTION MEASURES
Regular inspection and maintenance
Install safe surfacing materials, maintaining an adequate depth to cushion falls.
Maintain proper spacing between play equipment.
Separate play areas according to age-appropriate groups.
Ensure elevated platforms, ramps, stairs, and zipline areas have guardrails to prevent falls and impacts.
Encourage adult supervision and signage that emphasizes adult supervision.
Ensure moving parts have smooth enclosed mechanisms
Check playground temperature, especially metal equipment, and frequent checking, especially during summertime.
Keep the playground accessible from trips by well-maintained- maintained ensuring a clear path.
Design the play areas that are accessible to all abilities.
CONCLUSION
All public playground hazards can be dangerous if not appropriately addressed, but safety measures can lessen the risks of injuries if appropriately implemented. Now that the hazards are identified and prevention is mentioned, communities can create a safe, fun space where children can explore, play, and develop safely with the cooperation of caregivers.