Playground Safety

STATISTIC OF INJURIES

Every year, over 200,000 children submit to the emergency room due to playground-related injuries. Out of those injuries, 15 children suffer fatal injuries from playground equipment. Almost 80% of injuries involve falls, those falls injuries are also accountable for 90% of severe playground injuries.

WHAT ARE THE MOST COMMON PLAYGROUND FATALITIES

Children are so active during playing without realizing the imminent danger waiting for them. That is why every playground should be equipped with safety-approved equipment and child supervision to mitigate the risk of injuries. Although some playground injuries arise from typical child’s play, other child injuries result from property or equipment defects. Here we are going to delve deeper into which injuries is the most common in playgrounds

Broken Bones

More than 50% of hospitalized injuries are fractures and abrasions, this happens a lot due to having softer bones compared to adults. Fractured bones for a child can be painful and take weeks or months to heal and possibly may interfere with a child’s proper physical development. Children’s bodies are so fragile even minor incidents could lead to injury and broken bones. This incident happens quite a lot on a playground due to falls and sports incidents.  Soft and safe ground materials could cushion a child’s fall and prevent the most serious injuries.

Head And Brain Injuries

This is the same with common fall incidents, except the body part hitting the ground is the head. The number of emergency room visits for playground brain injuries has increased in the last decade. Head and brain injuries somehow are very serious considering the brain is the most important organ and some injuries lead to lifetime effects. A child could fall and strike their head on playground equipment or the ground surface and inflict head injury. Bad timing and improper landing posture cause head fall first, and then head injuries will happen. Children tend to act recklessly and poor supervision from an adult would make them do what they should not do or climb in a place where they should not, which would only make it easier for any incident to happen.

Soft-Tissue Injury

These kinds of injuries are considered minor as it happens quite a lot and heals faster. Torn muscle, sprain and dislocation could happen due to certain conditions. Most of the time proper warm-up exercise is enough to prevent soft-tissue injury. But sometimes it causes by old or poorly maintained equipment that leads to soft-tissue injuries. Slippery or dangerous surfaces could also cause slip and fall accidents with accompanying soft-tissue damage.

Old And Obsolete Equipment

Playground equipment in old condition could be unsafe for children as there must be some fragility with the equipment and definitely pose some danger while children play with it. Old and fragile swings, for instance, could definitely snap or break anytime while children swinging with it and the next consequences for them could be anything and definitely dangerous. Rusty or jagged metal on a slide, would instantly injure a child and expose them to risks of complications such as infectious or tetanus. Other problems with old equipment include loose bolts, shard edges, protruding nails and dangerous foreign matter on the ground.

Collision Between Children

Collisions in playgrounds could happen as well. This will be happening when the playground becomes crowded and less supervision from parents as well. The probability of children to run into one another is high because what they do is play and run without much awareness. While most collision is minor, head-on collisions and collision resulting in falls could cause concussion and other traumatic injuries.

Strangulation And Entrapment

It has been reported by the Product Safety Commission that 68% of the children died from strangulation. This is the most deadliest risk children could face on the unsafe playground as it is so fatal that leads directly to death if the strangulation is on the neck. Strangulation could occur on rope structures and swings. Even with safe equipment, it still could happen with typical child’s play where it is accidentally happen toward them. Entrapment is another typical accident on the playground. Children get stuck between the equipment and it happens a lot as children tend to move between things and somehow they could get stuck. They could receive a serious injury if the equipment has a manufacturing defect that allows them to get hurt, including the risk of getting crushed or pinched between equipment.

HOW SAFETY RUBBER FLOORING COULD REDUCE INJURIES ON PLAYGROUNDS?

Although the playground looks safe from the outside, it still poses danger for children playing on it. They could get caught in between metal bars or slip through gaps and hurt themselves. Most of the cases it is just a fall on the ground, it could be fatal but mostly it is just minor injuries.  Any accident could happen on the playgrounds, the injuries can be minimized if it is playground-surface-related injuries by installing safety rubber flooring in the playground. Here is how safety rubber flooring reduces potential playground injuries.

Cushioning And Shock Absorption

When safety rubber flooring is installed on uneven playground surfaces, this will make it even safer for children to walk and play. When children play around with swings or monkey bars, safety rubber flooring could absorb the fall impact and hence minimize potential injuries. This kind of playground flooring surface has an elasticity that offers cushioning which is why it has good shock absorption. Compared to hard flooring, any falls would be so fatal as it could instantly put damage to their body and the result could be broken bones and etc.

As the name suggests, “safety rubber flooring” is made to secure safety for people on it, especially in a place with a high volume of people as playgrounds.

Anti-Slip And Waterproof

This safety rubber flooring is the safest flooring you could get on the market today. The rubber is resilient and could prevent slips, falls and flooding. One of the features that let safety rubber flooring to be slip-resistant is because it has a very high coefficient of friction within the soles and rubber surface. Children on playgrounds would experience an improved level of grip and traction that would prevent them from slipping and falling afterwards. They could run around without worrying about something that could hinder their activities, it is safe and no slipping.

Although rubber flooring is soft like a sponge, it does not have the ability to absorb water as the rubber does not have space inside and water could not enter. With moisture conditions, any normal surface would cause mold and mildew on the floor, which can impact the health of people around. However, rubber is naturally water resistant so there is no problem as it could perform well even during rain and wet conditions.

This would enhance the overall level of non-slip safety because it would keep the top surface of the rubber flooring surface clear of liquids and safe to walk on.