Playing It Safe : Caution, Good Equipment Help Set a Sane Standard for Fun

Roie Reuveni, 3, and his brother Ben, 6, will “do anything” to get to the playground at Van Nuys-Shermans Oaks Park, which is fitted with new swings, slides, climbing platforms and monkey bars.

But, according to their parents, the boys don’t use equipment that is beyond their ability. They don’t run in front of swinging swings and they know better than to push and shove. Asa and Elena Reuveni have taught their children to play it safe.

“My kids are different,” said Asa, a wholesale food supplier who lives with his family in Van Nuys. “We rely on their judgment. They won’t go on things they’re afraid to go on. They will go up only if they know they can come down.”

When Antelope Valley novelist Dennis Anderson takes his son Garrett, 4, to public playgrounds, he recalls his own childhood--BB guns, playing Superman, exploring caves--and tries to minimize the risks to his son’s safety. He stands close to the playground equipment, ready to help, guiding Garrett up the steps and down the slide.

Anderson said he tests the equipment before he lets his son use it, even though he knows the boy is cautious. “He’s got a pretty good idea of his confidence level,” Anderson said. “When we were kids, we did everything and didn’t think about it. Everything is a risk, anymore. I don’t know how safe this equipment is. There were times when children could go to a park and play with glee and abandon. Those days are over.”

The Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks maintains 53 play areas in the San Fernando Valley, and other municipalities, such as the city of Burbank, maintain their own playgrounds. Crews repair equipment as it deteriorates and clean up debris and broken glass. In many areas, stainless steel slides that retain heat in the bright sun have been replaced with plastic slides, and bucket seats have been provided for tiny tot swings so very young children can’t get in unassisted.

Even so, park officials say mishaps are inevitable at facilities that are used more often nowadays as baby boomers’ babies grow up. And they advise parents to do their own checking before their children scramble up a Jungle Gym or hang from a set of monkey bars.

Dozens of accidents occur every year at public parks but park officials say few of them result in devastating injury. (Last year, three children younger than 5 in Los Angeles and Orange counties died on playground equipment in private settings: a home back yard, a day-care center and an apartment complex.)

15 Deaths Yearly

According to the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission, between 1980 and 1988, an average of 15 deaths a year nationwide were the result of playground incidents. Others children sustained temporarily incapacitating injuries, from sprains to fractures to concussions.

To reduce injuries, the city of Los Angeles employs a fleet of specially equipped vans--labeled “Playground Doctor”--that visit all city playgrounds once a month to make repairs. Maintenance crews make stops as many as several times a week at each site to take care of tasks such as raking and cleaning the “sandbox,” the sandy surface on which most playground equipment is set.

Most reported equipment repairs are made within 48 hours, and emergency repairs are made immediately, said Patrick Kennedy, the senior park maintenance supervisor for the West Valley division of the Recreation and Parks Department.

Kennedy said newer modular play systems, which have interchangeable parts, have made maintenance a little easier, since bits and pieces, rather than the whole, can be replaced.

Records Kept

“We keep a complete record and inventory of all playground equipment inspection, and a record of all accidents reported to us. We encourage the public to call,” Kennedy said. “We appreciate it. It keeps us from having lawsuits when we can stay on top of it and fix” the equipment. He added, “We’re constantly upgrading.”

Preventing all injuries, however, is not possible, and Kennedy said a wide range of lawsuits have been filed against the department by parents who claim their children were hurt on playground equipment, and that the operator of the park is to blame. James Hadaway, general manager of the Los Angeles parks department, said the largest awards it has paid have been in the $25,000 to $30,000 range.

What causes most of the injuries? Falls, head entrapment, being struck by a moving part of a piece of equipment--a swing--and contact with sharp edges or protrusions, said Anne Pavlich, spokeswoman for the Consumer Products Safety Commission in Bethesda, Maryland.

Last year, Pavlich said, 201,000 people who were hurt at playgrounds were treated at hospital emergency rooms, and many of them were small children. A total of 62,932 were 4 years old or younger, and 128,614 were ages 5 to 14. More than 8,000 of the injured children 15 or younger required hospitalization.

Voluntary Compliance

Standards for construction of playground equipment and maintenance are voluntary.

Teri Stein, recreation supervisor for the Burbank Parks and Recreation Department, like a growing number of her counterparts, has a college degree in recreation administration. The city’s park service’s division purchases the playground equipment, keeping in mind an unofficial “overall standard of safety,” Stein said, and the reality that much of the equipment will be used without close adult supervision.

“With any type of equipment, there is a degree of risk involved,” Stein said. That risk varies from site to site, depending on the age of equipment.

One small Burbank park site was recently redone and fitted with upgraded playground equipment for children of all ages. Vickroy Park, at 2300 Monterey Place, is an island within a long-established neighborhood, with picnic tables and a small basketball court on the periphery of the childrens’ playground.

The modern equipment, made of a combination of sturdy wood and metal, has rounded corners and sunken bolts. Peggy Newborn lives nearby and regularly takes her two children to the park to play. Steven, 3, is cautious and has managed quite well at the Vickroy playground. But 19-month-old Kristin banged her forehead on a safety bar extended across the top of a slide. It is designed to ensure that a child will be seated, not standing, before beginning the descent. But it can also catch a child in the throat or face, depending on the size of the child.

Nevertheless, Vickroy is considered a showcase because of its state-of-the art equipment.

Said Stein: “Any play equipment is out there for a large range of ages. Some are too young. Some are too old. Parents have to find where their kids’ abilities are before they use the equipment.” In Burbank, she added, all park accident reports are reviewed monthly and equipment changes are made if necessary.

Janice Mitchell, director of the Los Angeles office of the Consumer Products Safety Commission, takes her 4- and 6-year-old children to public playgrounds on a regular basis. “One problem with playground equipment is that people expect it to last forever,” she said.

It’s “not always replaced as soon as it should be,” she said. “Most manufacturers give you a life span of 10 years,” but municipal budget constraints force the continual use of equipment that should be retired.

Choosing and maintaining safe playground equipment is “a continual process by cities,” she said. “There is a lot of literature out there. . . . It’s a professional specialty now.”

The issue of playground safety has inspired concern at the national level. Representatives of the Civic Risk Management Assn., National Parks and Recreation Assn. and Consumer Products Safety Commission are meeting regularly to discuss problems and guidelines for manufacture, installation and upkeep of childrens’ playground equipment.

The commission is working on the first-ever guidelines for children’s public playground equipment and expects to issue them in 1991.

John Preston, the commission’s chief engineer, said, “We’ll be making some radical changes, I think.” He said this set of standards will be much more comprehensive, in part because “the equipment has changed a lot.”

One thing engineers are certain of already, Preston said, is that “you should not combine swings with anything” and that where possible, they should be separated from other equipment with a barrier to avoid collisions.

Because “it might be difficult for a parent to know what to look for,” Preston recommends that parents read the commission “Handbook for Playground Equipment Safety, Volume 1,” which can be ordered through the commission’s Los Angeles office.

Recommendations for Parents

Preston also has his own safety recommendations for parents:

* Check the surface beneath the playground equipment to make sure it is resilient. It should be made of shock-absorbing sand, wood chips, pea gravel or rubber matting.

* Keep small children off large equipment. Don’t think your child has more ability than he has, or that he is “advanced for his age.”

* Look for signs of deterioration on the equipment, and when you find it, report it to whoever is responsible for upkeep.

* Be aware of the possibility for entanglement. Look for protruding hooks or bolts. Don’t dress the child in clothing with straps or belts.