ACEI SPEAKS

A Parent's Guide to Playground Safety

by Joe L. Frost and Nita L. Drescher

Getting hurt is not just a normal consequence of growing up. When kids are seriously injured on a playground, someone failed to do his job.

Over 200,000 children suffer injuries each year that require emergency room treatment. Many of these injuries occur at public park, public school, preschool, and fast food restaurant playgrounds that are in a state of disrepair. Outmoded, poorly designed equipment, and improperly installed and maintained equipment present physical hazards to children. Other factors that contribute to playground injuries and fatalities include lack of education on playground safety for parents, caregivers, and teachers that results in poor supervision of children at play; and children's declining levels of motor skill and general fitness due to conflicting activities such as television, video games and fear that community play areas may be dangerous. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission's (CPSC) Handbook for Public Playground Safety (1991) is the most widely accepted set of safety guidelines and should be considered the minimum level for playground safety. Review these guidelines and evaluate the playgrounds where your child plays. The CPSC maintains a hotline (800-638-2772) for reporting dangerous products and product related injuries, and for consumer information.

What are common safety hazards on playgrounds?

Hard surfaces (concrete, asphalt, hard packed earth) under and around equipment. Sixty percent of all playground injuries are caused by falling onto hard surfaces. Clean sand, pea gravel, wood mulch, or manufactured material are acceptable surfaces. Professional installation is a wise policy. Check CPSC for depth, width, and other details.
Equipment not appropriate for age of children. Look for safety signs that state ages for which the playground was designed. Watch your children play to ensure they are able to use the equipment without signs of fear or falling.
Areas that can entrap a child's head (spaces between 3 1/2 and 9 inches). Small bodies can fall or crawl through openings as small as 4 to 5 inches wide, leaving a child suspended by the head.
Shearing or crushing devices (moving parts, gear boxes, missing or loose inspection plates). Check for worn and loose parts where fingers, arms, or legs could be inserted.
Excessive heights or heights without protective barriers. In general, 6 to 7 feet is a maximum height for school-age children, even when protected by resilient surfacing. Overhead exercise equipment such as trapeze bars, rings, and track (pulley) rides should not be more than a few inches above childrenÕs standing reach.
Improperly anchored equipment. All concrete footings should be recessed 4 to 6 inches under grade or base ground and securely anchored. Concrete at the base of fire poles should be well underground and covered by resilient surfacing.
Rotting wood or rusting metal, especially underground. Probe underground to ensure equipment is not in danger of collapsing.
Metal slides or decks exposed to the sun. Provide shade or use plastic. Toddlers can "freeze" to hot surfaces and suffer severe burns.
Protruding bolts, openings, S-hooks or other elements that can entrap or entangle clothing or jewelry. Such entanglement can lead to amputation or strangulation.
Heavy swing sets. Animal seat swings or swings with protruding elements should be replaced with lightweight rubber or plastic seats. Watch for young children walking in the path of swings.
Slippery decks, particularly when wet. Some decks, especially some vinyl-coated metal decks, are very slippery and should not be used when wet. Select slip-resistant decks that do not contain holes than can entrap children's fingers.
Broken, missing, damaged, or loose parts on equipment. Sharp or jagged edges can cut or puncture.
Loose ropes, cords, wires, cables on playground. Such loose materials have caused strangulation. All such items, including jump ropes, should be used only under supervision and kept in storage at other times.
Missing or poorly maintained fences. Apply guidelines for safe playground equipment to fences.
Grounds in poor condition. Trash, toxic material, broken glass, hypodermic needles, damaged safety signs, tripping obstacles and standing water are all hazards in a play area.
Equipment in a general state of disrepair. Rot, rust, warping, cracking, bending, termite infestation, and broken or missing components are signs of disrepair.
Electrical apparatus accessible to children. Air conditioners, switch boxes, transformers, etc., should be made inaccessible to children.
Equipment for organized games should be in good repair and designed for safe play (e.g., padded steel basketball posts, sturdy soccer goals firmly anchored in the ground).
Pools of water accessible to children. Children should use wading pools, buckets of water, etc., only under close supervision. Swimming pools should conform to national, regional, state, and local standards, ordinances, and codes. Toddlers and preschoolers are at high risk for drowning when playing near pools. Inadequate gates and fences are a common cause of young children entering pools unsupervised.

How can parents improve children's playgrounds?

Learn about playground safety. Teach your child about safety--you are not always with them.
Evaluate your child's playgrounds using the CPSC Handbook. Ask to see the maintenance records. Expensive is not necessarily safe.
Notify school principal, child care center director, or public park director of serious playground hazards. Document your findings with the CPSC Safety Handbook. If no action is taken, go to the next higher level of administration--school board, parks board. Be courteous, factual, and informed.
Regulate and limit your children's television viewing and provide regular opportunities for active play. Many children are injured because they have poorly developed motor skills. Excessive TV viewing coupled with junk food consumption is damaging to children's fitness and health.
Visit child care centers of schools during outdoor play time to evaluate playground supervision. At least two adults should be on the playground so that children are never left alone. The total number of children should not be greater than the equipment can reasonably accommodate. Supervisors should move about the playground--assisting, encouraging, and observing children.
Determine whether all adults who supervise children during outdoor play have regular training in playground safety, first aid, and medical emergency practices.

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This page is copyrighted 2000 by the Association for Childhood Education International. Please send any comments to Marilyn Gardner at aceimemb@aol.com.