Playground safety awareness: what is the child's role? - Brief Article

Parks & Recreation, May, 2003 by Curtis Stoddard

The child did what she always did on a cool but sunny autumn day. She asked Mom if she could go out to play Mom's reply was affirmative. Mom helped her child put on a jacket to keep the chill away. With a zip and a kiss, the child ran to the neighborhood park, hoping her friend would already be there.

Time spent at the park is a wonderful part of life for the child. Both child and parent were comfortable with the park setting. Because of the well-kept conditions of parks facilities and its proximity to their home, Mom wasn't overly concerned about elements of danger. She was confident the child could venture to the park, as she often did, and return home safely.

The child ran to her favorite toy on the playground, the spiral slide. She stood at the top, and gazed out to see if her friend was coming. As she headed down the slide, the drawstring on her jacket became caught. The weight of her body carried her down the slide, but the drawstring caught at the top of the slide, and wouldn't come loose. With no way to get her footing, the child strangled.

Progress and Perils

Fortunately, such scenarios aren't as common as they once were. Awareness of playground safety has progressed rapidly in just the last 20 years. (See the box on p. 46.)

Among manufacturers, safety awareness is evidenced by one-piece designs for spiral slides, which reduce the possibility of clothing drawstrings being caught in a seam. Products that allow openings only smaller than 3" or larger than 9"--thereby reducing the likelihood of a child's head or body part becoming trapped--are further evidence of safety awareness among manufacturers.

Safety awareness among playground builders is evidenced by the common knowledge that a six-foot minimum safety clearance is required around a playground structure or component. Owner awareness about the need for safety surfacing, options in unitary and loose-fill materials, and the depth required to adequately cushion the impact of a child's fall to the surface is also evidence that America's playgrounds are safer than ever.

And yet injuries requiring emergency room treatment continue to occur ever day. The American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons estimates that more than 509,650 injuries related to playground equipment cost society $9.8 billion for medical, legal and liability, pain and suffering, and work loss expenses.

Most disturbing are deaths that still occur from playground-related injuries. Yearly fatalities estimates range from 17 to 22 deaths. That translates to more than one child per month each year. From Jan. 1, 1990, to Aug. 1, 2000, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission collected data and recorded 147 playground-related fatalities. The hazard pattern of these reported incidents is as follows: 82 deaths from hanging, 31 deaths from falls, 24 deaths from tip-over or collapse of equipment. Of the remaining cases, eight were from entrapments or equipment impact, and 22 had no available information about the pending circumstances.

The commission reports that one incident involved a child who strangled when a cord that had been tied to a slide platform became wrapped around his neck as he went down the tube slide. Another case involved a five year-old who had a sled rope around her neck while climbing the slide ladder. When she fell from the top platform, the sled caught on the railings. A six-year-old male was believed to have been balancing on his bicycle seat while trying to untangle the rope of a trapeze bar from an overhead horizontal bar. The victim's bike helmet and head got caught between the trapeze bar/hand hold assembly and the cord that suspends the trapeze. The helmet's chinstrap tightened around the child's neck and cut off his oxygen supply A near-death circumstance involved an eight-year-old girl who was sliding down a slide during recess when the cords of her hood became entangled in the poles of the slide. Her teacher was on the scene to free her, but the girl suffered a brain injury from near strangulation.

Statistics collected and compiled in The ABC's of School Injuries in Utah, by the Utah Department of Health Violence and Injury Prevention Program in collaboration with Intermountain Injury Control Research Center at the University of Utah, reveal that more than two-thirds of school injuries occur on the playground or playfield. Nationally school settings accounts for 45 percent of all playground-related injuries that require emergency room assistance. According to The New York State Department of Health's Bureau of Injury Prevention, traumatic brain injury is the second leading diagnosis of all injuries sustained on playground equipment in the state of New York.

Playgrounds: Havens Or Hazards

For all the measures we've taken in the past two decades to make playgrounds safe, injury statistics make playgrounds seem like dangerous places. Some might conclude that playgrounds should be done away with altogether. "If you don't build it, they can't get hurt," is the thinking here.

Yet, almost instinctively, we recognize the need for play and play places. As one expert has put it, "children need to run, and hop, and jump, and do all the other things that kids do ..." to become fully developed both physically and mentally. Playgrounds provide the perfect setting for children to socialize and make friends. In the words of the authors of Play and Child Development,