Playground Injuries At Your Child’s Daycare: What To Know

Children just naturally love climbing, swinging, sliding, and everything else about playground equipment. With so many tempting choices indoors, such as video games and television, parents are often encouraged to locate a daycare center with plenty of outdoor recreational opportunities for the children. Playground equipment helps children exercise and build social skills, and they are almost always an attractive aspect of a park, school, or daycare center. Unfortunately, children get hurt on playground equipment in astonishing numbers. Read to find out more about playground injuries and how you can be compensated.

Injuries on the Playground

Children get hurt on the playground quite a lot (girls more than boys). The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has studied playground-related injuries and found that 200,000 children visit the emergency room each year as a result of being hurt while playing on playground equipment. Injuries can range from minor scratches and bruises to concussions, internal injuries, broken bones, and even death. Most playground injuries happen at schools and daycare centers and occur due to falls from heights, contact with sharp objects, and coming into contact with hard surfaces.

The Legal Liability for Playground Injuries

Whoever owns the playground is responsible for what happens there, regardless of the cause of the injury. For example, if another child pushed your child off the top of a climbing apparatus, the daycare is responsible and not the child (or their parents). That example, in fact, demonstrates one of the two legal responsibilities that daycare centers have in regards to playground safety – adequate supervision.

Adequate Supervision

You expect someone to be watching your children when they are at a daycare center, but this term also carries a legal responsibility. Children are unable to make good decisions – they often don't realize that a shove or a jump can cause themselves or others harm. Playgrounds are known areas for injuries and daycare centers that fail to adequately supervise children when they are playing outside are liable for injuries caused. The other legal responsibility is failing to maintain the equipment.

Playground Equipment Maintenance

Older playground equipment can present a hazard as well. New, safer designs can mean a softer, cushioned ground surface, parts that don't get hot in the sun, rust-free materials, covered hardware, and more. The older the equipment, the greater the danger to your children. All playgrounds should be inspected for problems regularly, and issues addressed before children are allowed to use it.

If your child has been hurt on a daycare playground, take action. Take them to the emergency room, urgent care facility, or your pediatrician right away and have them evaluated. Some injuries, especially head injuries, can present with little to no symptoms but can be deadly, nevertheless. To learn more, speak to your local personal injury attorneys at your earliest convenience.


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