Playground Safety Tips You can help keep your child safer from injuries on the
playground if you follow a few simple tips. These tips apply to backyard and fast-food
restaurant playgrounds, as well as to public or school playgrounds.
- Supervise children at all times, especially when they are on climbing equipment, swings,
and slides. 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 4-6 inches. The deeper the cushioning material, the better.
- 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, without 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.
- Make sure there is fencing between the playground and the street to prevent children
from running in front of cars.
Who Is Affected?
Each year in the United States about 200,000 children in preschools and elementary
schools are seen in emergency departments for injuries sustained on playground equipment.
That's roughly one injury every two-and-a-half minutes. More than one-third of these
injuries are severe, including fractures, internal injuries, concussions, and
dislocations.
Nearly all severe playground-related injuries are the result of children falling or
jumping from climbing equipment, slides, and swings. Protective surfaces made of
energy-absorbing (cushioning) materials under and around equipment can prevent and reduce
the severity of injuries related to falling on the playground. Supervising children while
they play on equipment is also extremely important.
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Additional Resources
- Safer
Playgrounds for Young Children
U.S. Department of Education
- Handbook
for Public Playground Safety
Consumer Product Safety Commission
- CPSC
Recreational Safety Publications
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
Materials include: "Home Playground Safety Tips," "Tips for
Playground Safety," and "Public Playground Safety Checklist and "Wear Bike
Helmets on Bicycles -- Not on Playgrounds"
- "Playground Safety Manual"
(2nd edition, 1991) is a 30-page
manual containing guidelines and checklists to help identify, provide and maintain better,
safer playgrounds for children. To order, contact Philip R. Fine, 933 South 19th Street
CHSB-19, Suite 403, Birmingham, AL 35294- 2041. Telephone Number: 205/934-7845. Cost is
$4.00.
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