Are the Playgrounds at Your Child’s School Safe? While you are taking your children to school, you will want them to have a safe environment to play in each day. There are hundreds of playground accidents each year that lead to serious injuries, so playground safety is of paramount importance.

“An unsafe playground can show up just about anywhere. Don’t assume that a playground is safe just because it is in a nice area, newly built, or even at your child’s school”

However, you may not know what to look for to ensure that a playground at a school has the proper equipment and soft playground surfacing materials. Many parents never visit their child’s recess area or playground, so they have no idea what the equipment and ground look like.

Children Use a School’s Playground Frequently

With the lack of resources that are available in many school systems, playground maintenance is on the back burner. Your children likely visit a school’s playground after or before school and during recess to have fun for a few minutes, but during this playtime, a serious injury can occur from a fall on the hard or sharp playground surface. In addition, there are other dangers from playground equipment that can lead to serious injuries. Here are the problems that occur from unsafe playground equipment.

Sof’Fall is trying very hard to get our soft playground surfacing in as many schools as possible. When the playground’s surface is hard or unsafe for children then it makes the whole playground a higher risk for injury. Sof’Fall is the safest option when it comes to playground surfacing.

Lacerations or Puncture Wounds from Sharp Objects

Parents should examine the playground equipment for sharp edges or loose connectors that can cause lacerations or puncture wounds. Remember that children have smaller bodies, making it easier for them to go down slides or to fit through tubes that adults can’t enter, and this is where there are often problems from sharp plastic or metal pieces. If there are loose screws or broken parts on jungle gyms, swings or teeter-totters, then it is imperative to have the problems repaired.

Choking or Strangulation Dangers from Playground equipment

A child can choke or become strangled in only a few seconds from faulty playground equipment. These playground safety issues occur when there are places on playground equipment where a child’s body or head is trapped. Strangulation deaths can happen when a child’s head is stuck between parts of playground equipment or if an item of clothing wraps around a child’s face or neck. By making sure that the playground equipment is connected correctly along with having essential repairs, it is possible to avoid these injuries.

Falling Injuries onto Hard Playground Surfaces

Falling injuries onto hard surfaces below the playground equipment are the most common problems at schools. Children can fall from a swing while it is in motion, or a child may drop from the monkey bars onto the surface below the jungle gym. This can lead to a sprained ankle, broken wrist or a head concussion that requires a trip to the emergency room at the hospital. Old-fashioned playground surfacing materials may include asphalt, gravel, cement or packed soil that won’t protect a child during a fall.

Call Us for Installation of High-quality Playground Surfacing Materials

However, our company is able to install soft playground surfacing material that helps to prevent injuries during a fall, and the playground surfacing material dries quickly after it rains while remaining in great condition for many years. Materials such as small bark chips or engineered rubber are the perfect soft playground surfacing materials at local public schools that need to protect students of all ages from a variety of falling injuries