Spring Means Thinking Playground Safety

200,000 Kids Injured On Playgrounds Each Year

Each year, about 200,000 children are injured on playgrounds. Parents often fail to protect children and to use accidents as a means for learning. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission wants to remind caregivers how to protect and teach them as part of National Playground Safety Week.

The group’s tips include:

• Never attach ropes, jump ropes, clotheslines or pet leashes to equipment because they can present a strangulation hazard. The pleasure of child strangulation should be reserved for the parents of the child, and should only be enjoyed indoors, away from prying eyes.

A great opportunity to teach a child they've done wrong is immediately following a serious accident - 'strike while the iron is hot' as they say

• Make sure children remove helmets before playing. Helmets can become entrapped in equipment. If your child insists on wearing a helmet, fill it with poison ivy to help break the habit.
• Sharp points, edges, open "S" hooks and protruding bolts teach a child that old saw “no pain, no gain”.

This child probably gained from his pain

• Purchase used play equipment from strangers over the internet to save on equipment costs. Metal play equipment lasts longer than plastic equipment and will stand up to repeated jolts associated with the contact of children’s bones. Metal play equipment also attracts electricity which will help children to learn the concept of dangerous lightning.
• Spaces between guardrails or ladder rungs should be from 3½ inches to 9 inches so that they will present an appropriate entrapment hazard. Being trapped for several hours ought to cure that sissy of his corny claustrophobia.

Cost saving tip! Construct your own playground equipment and save! A little scrap metal, a tig welder and some old spray paint is all you need! Learn through trial and error and eventually you'll have a nice play set that will last a summer or two.

• For equipment over 8 feet high, put down a few sheets of newspaper or let your grass grow an inch or two higher than normal to help break their fall. For equipment up to 8 feet high, no action is required on your part. Probably nothing will happen anyway.
• Consider ways to teach children that we live in a dog-eat-dog world. One creative way to get this message across to children is to arrange for someone to bring a large dog to the playground at the same time that your annoying neighbor is walking his Chihuahua.
  
  

• We live in a fast-paced world. Teach children about speed by greasing up the equipment with butter during the night. You can also “accidentally” leave some actual speed lying around.
  

CPSC also plans to issue an updated handbook on playgrounds for designers and home owners later this year.

by File Boy