Playground Guide - 2020 - 23

agerial controls in the form of safety
policies, staﬀ training, inspection records and injury incident reports?
The Risk Management Plan, the
General Playground File and the
Site History File developed by the
playground owners and managers
are designed to provide useful information regarding what requirements need to be veriﬁed through
audit, inspection and retention of
agency records, including injury reports, to ensure playground safety. Audits and inspections must be
comprehensive to be eﬀective. To
avoid future injuries, it is critical that
playground owners and managers
use data, such as injury reports, to
identify hazards or general trends in
accident frequency.

Installation Errors
Was the piece of equipment constructed in accordance with the manufacturer's drawings and speciﬁcations?
If the manufacturer's drawings or
speciﬁcations were used to determine compliance with applicable regulations, standards or guidelines, it
would be necessary to verify that the
equipment on the playground complies with those documents. Errors
can occur during fabrication of playground equipment, and changes in
the ﬁeld can alter critical dimensions.
If a defect is detected and remediation
cannot be done immediately, removal
of the equipment from service would
be justiﬁed if there is a likelihood of a
priority level one injury.

Design Defect
Was the piece of equipment designed
with a safety defect?
It is possible that a piece of playground equipment could be designed with a safety defect that is
not addressed by current playground
standards, yet injuries occur on a repetitive basis. Standards can be revised based on ﬁeld data.
Currently, there is no actuarial table
with acceptable numbers of serious
injuries based on usage. Playground
safety literature often refers to single incidents, using phrases such as
" a playground incident investigation
should include... " or " in the event of
a serious injury.... " Priority level one
injuries should not be occurring regularly or frequently on a piece of playground apparatus.
The CPSI Code of Professional
Conduct requires certiﬁed playground
safety inspectors to " ...sustain and advance the integrity, honor and veracity
of their certiﬁcation by...holding the
safety of playground users paramount
in all professional services. " NRPA's
CPSI course materials warn that:
Not all playground accidents
'just happen.' They may occur
because those who, by proper actions, could have minimized the
opportunities and removed the
conditions for accidents failed in
this responsibility to the children.
Operating a playground or a piece
of playground equipment while serious injuries continue to occur would
be an abdication of that responsibil-

How soon a playground defect requires
attention depends on the priority level of
potential injuries.

ity, and a violation of the CPSI Code
of Professional Conduct.
It's better to explain that a piece
of playground equipment was taken
out of service in the interest of public
safety than to argue it was left in service in the interest of expediency.
Lee E. Martin, AIA, CPSI, is Principal
Consultant at Rimkus Consulting
Group, Inc. (lmartin@rimkus.com).

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Playground Guide - 2020

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