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Is your public
playground a safe place to play?
Each year, more than 200,000 children go to U.S.
hospital emergency rooms with injuries associated
with playground equipment. Most injuries occur
when a child falls from the equipment onto the
ground.
Use this simple checklist to help make sure your
local community or school playground is a safe
place to play.
Public Playground Safety Checklist
- Make sure surfaces around playground
equipment have at least 12 inches of wood
chips, mulch, sand, or pea gravel, or are mats
made of safety-tested rubber or rubber-like
materials.
- Check that protective surfacing extends at
least 6 feet in all directions from play
equipment. For swings, be sure surfacing
extends, in back and front, twice the height
of the suspending bar.
- Make sure play structures more than 30
inches high are spaced at least 9 feet apart.
Check for dangerous hardware, like open
"S" hooks or protruding bolt ends.
- Make sure spaces that could trap children,
such as openings in guardrails or between
ladder rungs, measure less than 3.5 inches or
more than 9 inches.
- Check for sharp points or edges in
equipment.
- Look out for tripping hazards, like exposed
concrete footings, tree stumps, and rocks.
- Make sure elevated surfaces, like platforms
and ramps, have guardrails to prevent falls.
- Check playgrounds regularly to see that
equipment and surfacing are in good condition.
- Carefully supervise children on playgrounds
to make sure they're safe.
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