Playground Equipment Kills

SHOCK loss . . . 21-month-old Monica Livingstone died after falling from public play equipment in Townsville.
Now I've only seen glimpses of the play equipment the girl fell from and it certainly presented significant risks to very young children.

There has not in anyway been enough attention payed by councils in the design of playground equipment and in this particular case there were a number of area's on this equipment that presented a good likelihood of a fall.

And a fall from that hieght with any todler presents a risk of signficant injury and even death for the following reasons.

• The rubber matting or material at the base does little to absorb impacts from heights just reduces the scrapes and bruises from
• There were open ends to the raised deck the child was climbing on. This not only made it likely that a fall could occur but also made it hard for parents to stand closely to a toddler near the edge of and part of the equipment becuase there were so many. And even if she was climbing the ladder the parent would have to focuss ahead in case the child took off to an open part of the raised equipment.
• the ladder that was used made it quite easy for a slip tripping the person falling upside down and landing on their head.

There are some great child safe parks around now which all councils and government kidsafe programs could take note of and introduce those style of parks in all regions. The cost savings from law suits alone would pay for their introduction.

This article in the Bangkok Post is very informative to western society, I particularily like the focuss on assessing the age groups that will be using the park.