As a kid, I can vividly recall the small park in our neighborhood having a huge metal slide exactly like the one above. When the temperatures reached into the high 90s, or even just a bit warmer with a glint of the sun, this thing was not only blinding, but intensely hot. You knew to wear pants down that thing or suffer the consequences. But despite minor injury, I don't ever remember anyone freaking out about it or for that matter, about every time some kid tried to jump from a swing and got caught up on the now banned S hooks on the swings landing badly on said jump directly onto the concrete. You got scolded a bit for it being your fault for going all crazy out there, and your parents brushed you off if they were even at the park to begin with, LOL, and you kept going.
Our park equipment was dangerous. I mean, the majority of it is banned or has been altered today because of the injuries sustained on or about it. The lead paint that was used to color it is gone. The metal has been replaced by plastic. Heights of slides have been lowered to 8 ft or less. Hard gravels have been replaced by wood or rubber chips or bouncy rubber surfaces. Sharp edges and corners have been rounded. So I guess, not surprisingly so considering even in the 80s and 90s we had issues, the first parks to ever dot the country were safety nightmares. According to one report from 1902, a park in Boston was responsible for "…breaking a total of seven arms belonging to six boys, besides other casualties not reported."
These are some pictures of some early parks in the 1900s. Tell me you aren't cringing at the thought of these kids slipping off this thing and falling onto the hard ground below. And if you were a kid or have them, you know there is always that impatient pushy kid, who will knock you or your kid out of the way for a turn, and on this thing, that could mean a broken bone or a lot worse.
I mean legit look at this. The ladders are 100% vertical in some places, there is nothing to catch the center kid or others sitting on the crossbeams, there is a kid climbing under the ladder as some climb over him. The boy swinging is like a good 6 ft plus off the ground.
And you thought you could get high up on your swings. If these kids jump off, they best know how to tuck and roll or absorb the impact of the fall with their bodies.
It may be a fun thought to think, how cool these ladders and poles would be, but kids at that age are still learning about their balance and strength and dealing with fear. It takes just a second to fall off and sustain terrible injuries.
Focus your attention to the background of this shot to the kid on the swings and try not to freak out at a parent or even just an onlooker. Or perhaps this bit of park gear which let kids slide down from great heights on two wooden poles nearly as tall as the electric poles beside them.
Eee gads, but that was then, what about in more modern times?
According to the CDC, in the US, emergency departments treat more than 200,000 children ages 14 and younger for playground-related injuries. About 45% of playground-related injuries are severe–fractures, internal injuries, concussions, dislocations, and amputations. About 75% of nonfatal injuries related to playground equipment occur on public playgrounds.
The CDC reports that between 1990 and 2000, 147 children ages 14 and younger died from playground-related injuries. Of them, 82 (56%) died from strangulation and 31 (20%) died from falls to the playground surface. Most of these deaths (70%) occurred on home playgrounds. Of the children injured, girls sustained injuries (55%) of the time, and boys, (45%).
On public playgrounds, more injuries occurred on climbers than on any other equipment. On home playgrounds, swings are responsible for most injuries. A study in New York City found that playgrounds in low-income areas had more maintenance-related hazards than playgrounds in high-income areas. For example, playgrounds in low-income areas had significantly more trash, rusty play equipment, and damaged fall surfaces.
It's fine to look back through nostalgia fogged glasses about the days of yesteryear where things were a bit dangerous and lawsuits didn't exist, until you're the one staring at the face of your own child or see a child get strangled up in the swings, or break their arm after launching off a swing onto hard concrete, or see your kid knocked out on the merry-go-round and you have to deal with it. Kids are going to get hurt just as adults are going to get hurt just going about their daily lives, but as much as I loved those old playgrounds and I sustained a few tried and true minor permanent injuries myself, I wouldn't want these parks to come back or to expose kids to that level of danger again. We may have been a bit more ignorant to the dangers of these things then as I'm truly certain those in the 1900's were, but this is one of those things where we live and we learn.
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Your take reminded me of this bit.
The playgrounds around me switched the fall surface from pea gravel (smooth rounded stones 1/2") which absorbed impact well and posed no significant danger, to wood chips. Now I've fallen on woodchips hard before. They tend to poke your skin and you end up with little scrapes and punchers in your skin. Now imagine flying into it head first. Many woodchips tend to be several inches long. Which means very easily one could poke your eye out.
It dosen't make since to me. Smooth stones that move on impact makes sense. No lost eyes.
Woodchips: lost eyes.
Why would they make that change?
Number of kids I have heard about being hurt by the pea gravel: 0 (unless you count it being thrown at people).
Why change it? Cost. Around here woodchips are basically free. Where as purchase of pea gravel and transport are expensive.
So only a matter of time before kids lose an eye. What happened to safety?
How is that safer?
No I'm one for kids needing a fall once in a while to learn phisical skill, but looking at the woodchips I can clearly see that kids will be losing eyes.
I guess wood chips is bad terminology on my part. What they put in playgrounds is more like a mulch, but it is made from some combination of finely ground wood chips and dirt. It's actually very spongy and soft especially after it rains. I've not known anyone injured by this mixture either.
Where I live the wood chips are a mix of fine grind to larger chunks. Certainly possable to injure the eyes of s child who lands face first.
If a child or adult for that matter, is landing face first on a surface, unless it is made of pillows, they are probably going to be a little or a lot banged up. I'll not argue that wood chips could cause eye injury, but I only point out that the ones in my local parks are not the kind you'd lay down in a garden bed, but a soft mulch which has not caused injury to date.
You make a valid point, but I still think it's a good thing to get a few bumps and bruises growing up. Builds character and teaches judgement and common sense.
I got banged up a few times, and I was pretty lucky growing up. I had buddies that wouldn't go 2 months without putting something in a cast.
Sure the safety aspect is comforting, but what is the next generation going to learn if they don't have the opportunity to screw up and learn from it?
You can't unscrew up being strangled to death because playground equipment was unsafe and I hardly think it's necessary for a child to receive life long 3rd degree burns to teach them... what exactly, that a slide they thought was safe because it was on a playground... actually isn't? That should be a lesson for adults, not a 3 year old looking to have fun.
As I said, we get hurt no matter what, and we cannot protect ourselves or children from bumps and bruises, but they are undoubtedly going to learn those lessons, about random accidents that happen anyway, vs. purposefully putting them in situations where there are legit dangers to their health and safety.