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Playground Safety New Jersey Inspector Boy on Equipment

Q: Is there a national playground law?

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No. The Consumer Product Safety Commission Handbook for Public Playground Safety is considered a national guideline. Playground law is legislated on a state by state basis. Laws range from mandatory compliance with CPSC and ASTM specifications to no laws at all. Currently 17 states have some form of playground law. Some but not all states are in the process of developing playground legislation.

Q: Does the law say I have to have an inspection?

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It depends. If your playground is in California then yes. If your playground is in another state there is no law that says you have to have your playground inspected. However, in New Jersey the law says you must have certification in writing that your playground is in compliance with the NJ Playground Sub Code. The only way to do that is with an inspection or audit.

Q: What are the differences between an inspection and an audit?

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An inspection is performed to determine safety hazards on a playground as defined by CPSC Handbook for Public Playground Safety and ASTM F1487-07ae1 Standard Consumer Safety Performance Specifications for Playground Equipment for Public Use. These are considered “low frequency” inspections and should be conducted at a minimum of once a year. Depending on factors such as usage, age of the equipment, equipment material, etc., it may be necessary to perform inspections more frequently. An audit is conducted to determine compliance with CPSC Handbook for Public Playground Safety and ASTM F1487-07ae1 Standard Consumer Safety Performance Specifications for Playground Equipment for Public Use. This is a onetime event. One example that works well in understanding the differences is to consider a slide exit. The above cited documents both provide specifications for slide exits. They address height of the slide exit, fall zone and slope degree. A child could easily get hurt if a slide was too high above the safety surfacing or too close to a border. These are safety hazards that are examined as part of an inspection. These issues should be addressed immediately. A slide exit with a slope a few degrees off is more of a compliance issue. An audit would address all three of these issues. Unless the slope degree presented a visibly hazardous circumstance it would not be examined during a safety inspection. When opening a new playground a compliance audit should be performed between completion of the playground build and opening the playground. Pending legislation in New Jersey will include a requirement for new playgrounds to be audited. Contact Playground Inspection Professionals, LLC and we can help you determine what you need.

Q: What is the difference between a low frequency inspection and a high frequency inspection?

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A low frequency inspection should be conducted by a NPSI certified, fully insured, conflict free, professional playground inspector at least once a year. A high frequency inspection is conducted much more often. In some cases as often as daily. The inspection can be performed by individuals already employed by the playground owner/operator and trained to do so. Generally a check list of some sort is used. The purpose of the high frequency inspection is twofold. First to uncover hazardous conditions not present since the last high frequency inspection. Generally this includes vandalism but may include a variety of other issues. Second is to spot the beginning of developing issues, such as “S” hooks beginning to open, swing seats beginning to wear, safety surfacing migrating away from heavy use areas, etc. High frequency inspections are a very important aspect of a Playground Safety Policy. Training of personnel, document usage and storage, a policy for dealing with issues uncovered during the inspection should all be considered when conducting HFI procedures. Contact Playground Inspection Professionals, LLC and we can help you with this.

Q: What kind of safety surfacing is right for me?

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That is a very big and important question. Like many things in life the answer is “it depends”. It depends on budget, usage, age of the children, environment and more.

Q: What is the difference between a hazard and a risk?

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A hazard is something a child cannot see or be aware of. A risk is something a child can see and be aware of and can choose to undertake or not. The Issue is the matter of choice. Head entrapments, neck entrapments, protrusions, tripping hazards ( all hazards), may all be obvious to us but to a child at play they don’t exist. On the other hand, an overhead ladder with its obvious risk and challenges is something a child can choose to play on or not. Playground safety is about reducing life threatening and debilitating injury – without eliminating the developmentally vital challenges.

Q: What does “fully insured” mean?

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To Playground Inspection Professionals, LLC fully insured means both General Liability Insurance and Professional Liability Insurance. Not everyone carries Professional Liability Insurance (also known as Errors and Omission Insurance), or if they do they may only carry Limited Professional Liability Insurance. The following information is from the Insurance Information Institute “Errors and Omissions Insurance/Professional Liability Insurance: If your business involves services such as giving advice, making recommendations, designing products, providing physical care or representing the needs of others, you could be sued by customers, clients or patients claiming your failure to perform your job properly had harmed them in some way. Errors and Omissions or Professional Liability Insurance covers these situations. The policy will pay any judgment for which the insured is legally liable, up to the policy limit”.

Q: What are anthropometrics and why does it matter?

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Anthropometrics refer to the measurement of living human individuals for the purposes of understanding human physical variation. Now there’s a mouthful. As it relates to our discussion anthropometrics are what is used to determine measurements for equipment for 2-5 year olds and 5-12 year olds. More importantly they’re why children should only play on equipment suitable to their age. This leads to another extremely important responsibility of the playground owner/operator. That is to make sure signs are in place indicating what age group the equipment is for. Of all the playgrounds I’ve been on about half have no signage!

Q: What are the most common hazards on a playground?

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By far the most common hazard is inadequate or inappropriate surfacing material. 68% of all playground injuries are the result of falls to the surface. Not only is this the most frequent hazard uncovered but also the one with the potential for the greatest harm. The following list is the next 11 of the NRPA’s publication The Dirty Dozen. It lists the 12 leading causes of playground injuries. It’s not uncommon for older wooden structures to have many of these deadly hazards.

Inadequate use zone
Protrusion & entanglement hazards
Entrapment in openings
Insufficient equipment spacing
Trip hazards
Lack of supervision
Age-inappropriate activities
Lack of maintenance (This is a contributing factor in about 40% of all playground injuries. Additionally it is cited in 1 of 3 playground injury lawsuits)
Sharp edge, crush and shearing hazards
Platforms with no guardrails
Equipment not recommended for public playgrounds

Q: What is a Public Playground Safety Program and why is it important?

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That question deserves its own page. Click on the highlighted link for a full discussion of the issue. Briefly, a sound Public Playground Safety Program should:

Keep your playground as hazard free as possible
Extend the life or your play equipment
Provide a layer of protection from litigation

Q: What are the significant differences between the 1997 CPSC Handbook for Public Playground Safety and the new 2008 edition?

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Some of the most significant changes are;

The handbook now includes children as young as 6 months old
Shading considerations have been added
New information relating to hot surfaces and their blistering effects
Requirements for Maintenance Inspections, Pre-Opening Audits, Repairs, Maintaining Loose fill Surfacing and Record Keeping

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