Burger King to Replace Nets at 650 Play Sites

Burger King, the second-largest hamburger chain, is temporarily closing 650 playgrounds at U.S. restaurants to replace netting after the death of a child.

Burger King, a unit of British liquor company Diageo, announced the program jointly with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

The company said a 4-year-old boy crawled on a net at a Burger King in St. Louis and got trapped in an off-limits area of a play structure. The boy died April 29.

Playgrounds with the old netting will be closed until the company can install 7-foot “no-climb” nets with quarter-inch holes, too small for children’s knuckles to fit through, spokeswoman Kim Miller said. Refitting the play equipment will cost $1,000 to $3,000 at each restaurant, she said. Most of the restaurants are franchised, so the franchisees will bear the expense.

Burger King set a November deadline to complete the work, although it hopes to finish in the next several weeks, Miller said.

About 3,200 Burger King restaurants in the U.S. have playgrounds, which include soft, flexible slides and tubes in an enclosure. Playgrounds built after 1996 have the netting, Miller said.

The play structure at the St. Louis restaurant was made by Atrox Systems Inc., which ceased operations in 1997, the company said. Atrox made nearly 300 of the structures in Burger King restaurants.

Miami-based Burger King has 11,330 restaurants in the U.S. and in 58 other countries.

Diageo shares rose 30 cents to $42.29 on the New York Stock Exchange.