ATHLETIC FIELD AND PLAYGROUND SAFETY
As safety personnel, our responsibilities and tasks are numerous and sometimes daunting. With our limited time and resources, we sometimes overlook areas that can be of major importance to the students and staff of our district. Education and instruction occur mostly inside of our facilities, but other areas could prove to be conducive to accidents and injuries. Playgrounds and athletic fields are sometimes overlooked because of their disconnection or location to the facility, but these can be extremely dangerous places if inspections and prompt corrections are not made to remedy discovered problems. School property is utilized daily by students and community based organizations, whether specific fields or open areas, so routine safety inspections with prompt repairs are vital. Athletic fields, as well as playgrounds should be inspected frequently to look for any unsafe conditions that might exist.
Temporary backstops or goals are moved regularly to allow school and community teams to best utilize the area for their needs. These should be secured to the ground, not allowing for movement. These pieces of equipment can be climbed on or pushed around and ultimately fall and possibly injure someone. Additional reviews of permanent structures and their footings should be done to make sure that they are not becoming revealed and dangerous. Because of usage and soil erosion these become exposed and broken, causing trip and injury hazards. Included in these inspections should be concrete foundations, sidewalks, benches that have been secured, or any other areas of similar installation. Your soil and weather conditions and amount of activity will dictate how often the actual surface level should be inspected to alleviate holes and exaggerated low points. Sprinkler components such as valve boxes and heads begin to be seen after periods of usage. Visual inspections of these areas could possibly reveal situations that could result in injuries if problems are not discovered and eliminated. Gates and fencing should also be inspected for loose connections, broken components, or damaged areas. Daily walking inspections should be performed on these fields to look for glass, rocks, and other trash prior to any team using them. While you can’t control who utilizes the fields after hours, you can prevent injuries to your schools students by making sure these fields are clean of injury causing debris.
School playgrounds have special needs and requirements that should be inspected and reviewed regularly. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has developed and published the Handbook for Public Playground Safety. This handbook is a vital reference when it comes to the planning, installation, inspection, and maintenance of our schools playground apparatuses. So much so that the Texas Legislature adopted HB 632 in 1995 which states; that any purchase or installation of new equipment or material will meet the standards established in the CPSC Handbook. There are some allowances in this bill for equipment or surfacing materials purchased prior to this date. Any and all areas of safety concern are covered in the CPSC Handbook, including but not limited to; hardware, metal surfaces, sharp points, corners and edges, protrusions and projections, pinch and crush points, entrapments, tripping hazards, and suspended hazards. It details the applications and requirements for ladders, landings, steps, and handrails. The Handbook also is specific for age appropriate equipment, as well as spacing for different components, and surfacing material capabilities and recommendations. The layouts and designs of different equipment is detailed and includes site choices and development, construction and preparation, as well as boundaries, fall and use zones, and exit areas.
Two areas of concern that should be focused on are landing zones and accessible pathways. Landing zones are directly below slides, swings, and steps, and usually get kicked or rubbed out after brief, but active usage, and are no longer within allowances as detailed in the handbook. Safety mats can be purchased from a number of different sources including recognized buy boards and purchasing cooperatives. If installed correctly and inspected regularly, these mats can prove to be an inexpensive solution to a hazard developed from a usage issue. The second area of concern is also one addressed by all districts, accessibility. All new playgrounds need to be accessible in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines (ADAAG). New installations are easily designed to account for requirements, but updating existing components could prove to be costly as well as time consuming. While the majority of the guidelines and requirements are for new construction projects, there are restrictions and requirements that are mandated for any alterations made, so you should become familiar with those. There are several publications offered by the ADAAG that will prove beneficial to you in making sure that your playground is in compliance. Some of the areas that will be covered in these publications are; guidelines for new construction as well as alterations, how and why to select components, and the number of components required on an accessible route.
Links:
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpspub
http://www.access-board.gov/play
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