Does your estate playground meet required safety standards?
Omar Kinnear, ResidentPortal
With December holidays looming, this is a good time for estates and sectional title complexes to ensure their playgrounds are safe to play on.
So says Omar Kinnear, developer of ResidentPortal, a web-based communication portal for sectional title developments and homeowners associations.
”Playgrounds are a magnet for children and a wonderful way of developing their physical and socialisation skills,” he says. “However, many community schemes aren’t aware of the risks they face if a child is injured on their park equipment.”
Kinnear points out that common accidents on playgrounds are expected from time to time; however, in some cases, these can result in serious injuries, with falls from equipment accounting for 70% of all playground injuries, according to the South African Institute for Playpark Safety.
“It’s important for schemes to take steps to protect children from harming themselves on equipment and in so doing, prevent themselves from personal injury claims.”
Accidents can be avoided, or at least minimised, he says, if schemes abide by the playground safety standards as provided by the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS). Published in 2010, they must be seen against the background of a general duty of care in South African law.
Main aspects of the requirements include:
Proper Surfacing
Ideally any structure with a highest standing or sitting point of over 50cm should be installed with impact-absorbing surfacing to a minimum depth of 30cm. Acceptable surfaces are hardwood fibre/mulch, sand, rubber chips or matting and any surface must drain and be kept clear of debris etc. Grass, artificial or natural, is not accepted or safe.
Spacing
Current standards set a ‘fall zone’ (the area that is calculated both around and under a piece of playground equipment where a child may fall) at 2m. This means that safety surfacing should always cover an area at least 2m away from the equipment’s edge or from boundary structures.
Sharp protrusions
A protrusion is anything that may cause either an injury or entanglement on hair or clothing. For example, a protruding bolt or open hook, any rungs or handholds that protrude from the main structure.
Size of openings
Any opening on a piece of playground equipment should be smaller than 8cm to prevent the risk of head entrapment and strangulation.
Level surfaces
Ground surfaces should be level, with nothing that can cause trips or falls, such as tree stumps, roots and rocks, or sudden or too rise or drop in ground levels.
No moving parts that can cause injury
Moving pieces, such as swings, seesaws, merry-go-rounds and suspension/wobbly bridges should have no moving parts that could pinch or crush a child’s finger.
Handrails/guardrails
Any raised platform is required to have a guard or handrail that would prevent accidental fall from the platform at any open sides. For children under five years, any platform higher than 30cm and for older children, 76cm, is required to have a rail.
Maintenance
For playgrounds to remain in safe condition a requires a programme of systematic, preventive maintenance, involving all components. Current standards advise to call in a specialist when maintenance is required and to book annual safety checks.
General safety rules
Kinnear adds that, with the holidays coming up and more children outdoors (both in parks and on the street), they should be taught general safety rules. In playgrounds, these include not walking in front of moving swings, and that younger children, in particular, must be supervised at all times.
“Children should also wear relevant safety gear, for example, when riding their bicycles or skateboarding,” he says.
“It’s also important for residents to maintain the speed limit to avoid any unforeseen accidents due to more children playing in the open areas.”
ABOUT ResidentPortal
ResidentPortal is developed and managed by Sandton-based software consulting and development company, Business Xponent Solutions (BXS). The estate communication platform is one of the products emerging from 20 years of experience in the software industry of its founder, Omar Kinnear. One of the original developers of the SARS eFiling platform, Kinnear brings to ResidentPortal a wealth of knowledge of system performance and security.
Since 2016, around 100 complexes are using the Free Plan of ResidentPortal, and over 1000 residents, mostly in and around Gauteng, are benefiting from the way the full-featured Standard and Pro packages are simplifying their lives in their estates and complexes.
For more information, contact: Omar Kinnear, 078 798 3378
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