Backyard Playground Safety

By Safe Kids Canada

Do many playground injuries happen at home?

Every year in Canada more than 28,000 children are injured on playground equipment badly enough to visit a hospital emergency room. About one in every five of these injuries happens at home. Preschoolers (1 - 4 year olds) are more likely to get hurt at home than older children, and swings are involved in about half of all home playground injuries.

What can I do help keep kids safe at my home playground?

These safety tips are based on the playground safety standards published by the Canadian Standards Association (CSA), along with other research and expert advice in Canada. The CSA standards do not formally apply to home play equipment.

• Start with equipment that young children can use safely, instead of expecting your children to grow into the equipment. Young children are often injured on equipment designed for older children. To help make sure that your home equipment is appropriate for the age of your children, build your play space in stages. A good rule to follow: If a child is too small to reach and use equipment by himself, it is not designed for children his age.
• Falls are the number one cause of injury. There are several ways you can prevent children injuries from falls:
  • A deep, soft surface will cushion the impact of falls and prevent many injuries. Provide a loose-fill surface of at least 6 inches (15 cm) deep under swings, climbers and slides to cushion falls. Equipment higher than 6 feet (1.8 m) should have surfacing which is 12 inches (30 cm) deep. (See below for more on surfacing materials.)
  • Keep heights low. For example, the CSA standard recommends that balance beam for pre-schoolers be no higher than 12 inches (30 cm), and 16 inches (40 cm) for children 5 - 12 years old. Be creative ˜ for example, build a slide into a hill. Children under 5 years should be kept on equipment lower than five feet high.
  • Make sure equipment has guardrails or barriers to prevent falls. (The CSA standards recommend barriers on equipment higher than 30 inches (75 cm) if pre-schoolers will be playing on it, and on equipment higher than 4 feet (120 cm) for children 5 years and older.)
  • Keep high equipment out of reach of children younger than 5 years. For example, remove the lowest rung of ladders to keep toddlers from climbing.
• Swing seats should be made of soft material such as rubber or canvas. Many injuries occur when children are hit with a hard swing seat.
• Make sure there is lots of space around equipment. The CSA standard recommends that there be 6 feet (1.8 m) between any two pieces of play equipment, as well as between equipment and fencing or other structures. Swings and slides require more space. Many backyards will not allow this much space. Keep spacing in mind when you plan your yard.
• Equipment should be firmly anchored in the ground.
• There should be no points which can catch children's clothing. Children have died from strangulation when clothing or ropes they were playing with became entangled in high equipment. Check particularly at the top of slides, S-hooks on swings, the joints of climbers, and nearby fencing. Remove drawstrings from children's clothing; use neck warmers instead of scarves in cold weather; do not let children wear bike helmets while climbing; and ensure that children do not tie ropes to climbing equipment.
• Keep large pails and wading pools away from play areas. Toddlers can drown in a few inches of water. Always supervise young children at water play.
• Inspect your backyard playground regularly (several times each month) and make repairs or remove broken equipment. Look for signs of wear, splintering, or cracks. Check that bolts are tight and equipment is still well anchored. Check the depth of surfacing, and rake it to keep the surfacing loose and remove debris. Add more surfacing where necessary.
• Supervise actively. For children younger than 5 years, we recommend that you stay close to children as they play. Be ready to catch them when they are on equipment. Keep them on equipment under 5 feet high. And keep an eye on the behaviour of older children; they like to take chances.
• Take off anything that could strangle your child before he goes out to play. Take off any strings or drawstrings on your child's clothing. In winter, use clips instead of strings to hold the mittens. Make sure your child wears a neck warmer instead of a scarf. Do not let your child take skipping ropes or bike helmets onto playground equipment.

Where can I buy playground surfacing? What will it cost?

Fine sand, pea gravel, shredded bark mulch, wood chip nuggets are acceptable natural materials to put under home play equipment. Many gardening centres and hardware stores carry these materials and can help you calculate how much surfacing you need. Three cubic yards of surfacing will cover a playspace 10-feet by 10-feet to a depth of 6 inches, and will cost about $100 to $150 depending on the material. Remember that greater depth is recommended for higher equipment and that natural surfacing will likely need topping up at least once a year.

Make sure that the ground has good drainage before installing play equipment. Surfacing will not provide protection if it is covered in water or ice.

Some types of synthetic surfacing are also available in family-size quantities. You may find hardware and department stores which carry loose rubber material in bags. Commercial-grade outdoor rubber mats are available from manufacturers: costs run approximately $5 - $12 per square foot.

Where can I get more information?

• The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has safety tips for home playgrounds, available on the Internet at: www.cpsc.gov or by phone at 1-800-638-2772. Although this is not a Canadian source, U.S. and Canadian playground safety standards are similar.
• Contact Safe Kids Canada with your questions. We will do our best to help. Phone 1-888-SAFE-TIPS (1-888-723-3847)