Playground equipment-How much of either
Playground equipment-How much of either
Is lowering the Head Injury Criteria (HIC) to 700 the magic number to reduce severity and frequency of fall related injuries? How many children have to be severely injured or die from a fall on the playground before we can justify some enhanced performance measurement for playground surfaces? Why are some questioning the use if the National Highway Transportation Safety Board’s (NHTSB) research as rationale for our surfacing impact thresholds? Some are questioning why we are not following the NHTSB research recommendations for automobile crash protection of 700 HIC for School-age playgrounds and 560 for pre-school age playgrounds. Why use 700 HIC for both? The NHTSB’s action has resulted in a 10% reduction in Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) over a 10 year period once the new impact attenuation thresholds were implemented. Is that a significant improvement in cost for residual benefits to society versus the cost to the consumer to implement? The NHTSB could not give us this good news until the new standard was put in place and it probably took 10 years of before this standard was put into most cars on the road.
I cannot tell you when or if a reduction in the playground surfacing thresholds may occur but in the meantime if we are ever going to see any reduction in fall related injuries it will require owner/operators take action in these four areas.
First, they need to become more knowledgeable in all the factors related to the performance of all playground protective surfacing systems.
Second, they need to become knowledgeable in all the industry requirements and best practices for maintaining compliant surfacing systems.
Third, they need to improve their purchasing practices so performance requirements and specifications for their playground protective surfacing meet the performance requirements and expectations throughout the life of the playground equipment.
Fourth, they need to develop and implement operation procedures to address all of the above by improving the inspection and maintenance of their playground surfacing systems.
These steps are the only way the playground owner/operator can ensure compliance to current industry standards. Compliance to standards should reduce liability exposure and since there are still many public play areas that have surfacing that is far from compliant it also might have an overall positive impact on the frequency and severity of injuries. Without implementing any of these actions we will continue down the same path we have been on for years. Fall related injuries will not diminish and millions dollars will continue to be paid out primarily due to long bone fractures. I am concerned one of the unintended consequences of the status quo mindset could lead to fewer play opportunities as local governments implement liability avoidance tactics and remove playgrounds. Some have already implemented policies that have eliminated swings and other motion equipment because of injuries sustained and the amount of money that has been paid out by insurance companies.
Is lowering the Head Injury Criteria (HIC) to 700 the magic number to reduce severity and frequency of fall related injuries? How many children have to be severely injured or die from a fall on the playground before we can justify some enhanced performance measurement for playground surfaces? Why are some questioning the use if the National Highway Transportation Safety Board’s (NHTSB) research as rationale for our surfacing impact thresholds? Some are questioning why we are not following the NHTSB research recommendations for automobile crash protection of 700 HIC for School-age playgrounds and 560 for pre-school age playgrounds. Why use 700 HIC for both? The NHTSB’s action has resulted in a 10% reduction in Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) over a 10 year period once the new impact attenuation thresholds were implemented. Is that a significant improvement in cost for residual benefits to society versus the cost to the consumer to implement? The NHTSB could not give us this good news until the new standard was put in place and it probably took 10 years of before this standard was put into most cars on the road.
I cannot tell you when or if a reduction in the playground surfacing thresholds may occur but in the meantime if we are ever going to see any reduction in fall related injuries it will require owner/operators take action in these four areas.
First, they need to become more knowledgeable in all the factors related to the performance of all playground protective surfacing systems.
Second, they need to become knowledgeable in all the industry requirements and best practices for maintaining compliant surfacing systems.
Third, they need to improve their purchasing practices so performance requirements and specifications for their playground protective surfacing meet the performance requirements and expectations throughout the life of the playground equipment.
Fourth, they need to develop and implement operation procedures to address all of the above by improving the inspection and maintenance of their playground surfacing systems.
These steps are the only way the playground owner/operator can ensure compliance to current industry standards. Compliance to standards should reduce liability exposure and since there are still many public play areas that have surfacing that is far from compliant it also might have an overall positive impact on the frequency and severity of injuries. Without implementing any of these actions we will continue down the same path we have been on for years. Fall related injuries will not diminish and millions dollars will continue to be paid out primarily due to long bone fractures. I am concerned one of the unintended consequences of the status quo mindset could lead to fewer play opportunities as local governments implement liability avoidance tactics and remove playgrounds. Some have already implemented policies that have eliminated swings and other motion equipment because of injuries sustained and the amount of money that has been paid out by insurance companies.
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