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Playground Safety
A Fact Sheet on Preventing Playground-related Injuries
-Each year over 200,000 children receive emergency department care for playground related injuries. That is one child every 2 ½ minutes. Most injuries are the result of falls - falls to the ground below equipment, but falls from one piece of equipment to another are also reported. These falls can cause serious brain and spinal cord injuries or even death.
Follow up:
-Remove or cut the hood and neck drawstrings from all children's outerwear to prevent entanglement and strangulation. Children have died when hood or neck drawstrings were caught on slides and other playground equipment.
-Make sure spaces that could trap children's heads, such as openings in guardrails or between ladder rungs, measure less than 3.5 inches (so children can't get their heads in) or more than 9 inches (so they can get out).
-Check playground equipment to make sure it is in good repair, with no loose or protruding bolts, jagged edges or sharp points.
-Check for hot surfaces on metal playground equipment before allowing young children to play on it. Metal equipment can heat up in direct sunlight and cause burn injuries in a few seconds.
-Make sure there are no obvious hazards around the playground, such as broken glass, exposed concrete footings, tree stumps.
-Make sure there is fencing between the playground and the street to prevent children from running in front of cars.
-Install playground equipment at least 6 feet from fences, walls or trees.
Tips
-Supervise children at all times. Prevent behaviors like pushing, shoving, and crowding around equipment.
-Make sure that children play on playground equipment that is appropriate for their age. For example, don't let young children play on high climbing equipment such as monkey bars. Keep all children off equipment from which they might fall six or more feet.
-Check the surface under playground equipment. Avoid playgrounds with asphalt, concrete, grass, and soil surfaces under the equipment. Look for surfaces of hardwood fiber, mulch chips, pea gravel, fine sand, or shredded rubber -- materials that can cushion a fall – with a depth of at least 9 inches.