Each year around 50,000 make emergency room visits after being injured on home playground equipment, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. About 80 percent of these children injure themselves falling off the equipment. Children can also sustain injuries when swings hit them or they cut themselves on sharp corners or exposed bolts. Ropes and chains attached to swings or pet leashes tied to the equipment can cause serious injury or even death; a child can get strangled if he gets them tangled around his neck. Home playground safety rules and safe setup of equipment are crucial to avoiding injuries.
Building a Safe Playground
Your playground will be safest if you locate it away from roads and driveways, and at least 6 feet from the house, sheds and other structures. Swings need even more clear space in front and behind them; allow for an area roughly twice the height of the top bar. Place your playground equipment in an area you can easily see from inside your house. Your playground equipment needs a level area to reduce the chance of it tipping over. Cover protruding bolts and sharp corners to prevent cuts.
Shock Absorbing Footing
One of the most important ways you can minimize your child's risk of injuries is to place a shock absorbing playground surface under and around the equipment. Concrete, asphalt or other hard surfaces can result in serious injuries, including head injuries. If you're using loose-fill material such as wood mulch or shredded rubber mulch you'll need at least a 9 inch layer under equipment up to 8 feet tall. If your equipment is 5 feet high or less, you can use 9 inches of sand or pea gravel. Whatever protective surfacing you use should extend 6 feet around the playground equipment.
Preventing Head Entrapment
Hanging ropes and spaces in or between playground equipment can result in strangulation. All spaces on your playground equipment, such as those between ladder rungs, posts and railings should be either smaller than 3-1/2 inches wide to prevent children from putting their heads through or more than 9 inches wide to allow children to slide their whole bodies through without getting stuck. Don't allow your children to attach ropes, pet leashes, belts or other item that can form a loop to the equipment.
Preventing Falls
According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the major cause of emergency room visits for playground equipment-related injuries is falls from the equipment. All ladder rungs, steps and stairs on your playground equipment should be evenly spaced. Rungs should be 1 to 1.5 inches in diameter for smaller children, and stairs should feature a continuous handrail on each side, starting at a point where the top surface of the stair is 30 inches high. Build a guardrail or other barrier around any platform 30 inches or more above the ground. Don't allow your kids to climb on the guardrail or barrier.
Other Considerations
Supervision is crucial to preventing injuries in young children when using playground equipment. Choose swings with seats made of soft material instead of wood or metal. Children should not twist the swings or walk in front of or behind a moving swing. Before your children begin playing, check slides and other metal surfaces to make sure they're not hot enough to cause burns.
