At Creative Components, children’s safety is the most important issue.

Our wish is to raise awareness of safety regulations and guidelines that have been developed for playground equipment intended for public use. By raising awareness we hope to convey the importance of identifying and correcting conditions that may exist on playgrounds that pose a risk of injury or death to a child.

Playground equipment can typically be divided into two main categories: residential and commercial.  Because commercial equipment is intended for use by a wider variety of users, including many of differing ages and abilities, manufacturers of commercial play equipment must meet rigid safety standards that are different from those companies who manufacture residential or backyard- type play equipment.  By meeting or exceeding these standards, commercial playground equipment manufacturers, like Playcraft, are helping you make your recreational area safer for everyone.   

Residential structures, such as home play-gyms and home-built wooden playstructures, that are placed in park areas for public use are not in compliance with Federal safety guidelines.

Please visit the Consumer Product Safety Commission website at: www.cpsc.gov , the American Society for Testing and Materials at:  www.astm.org  and the International Play Equipment Manufacturers Association at:  www.ipema.org to learn more.  Ensure that your playground is safe and accessible to everyone; visit the U.S. Access Board at www.access-board.gov.

Downloadable Safety Play Books:

• Public Play Equipment
• Home Play Equipment

While our main focus on this page are issues found in public use areas, many of these same safety issues may also exist in backyard or residential play areas. These hazards are very real. If a safety hazard exists, whether in a public park or in the backyard of a home, it should be addressed and corrected.   
A hazardous condition that is frequently found are areas that pose the possibility of “head and neck entrapment” issues.  PLEASE look for areas on your playstructure that a child can fall or crawl through.  If it is an elevated surface, make sure that the spacing is large enough for a child’s head to pass through the same opening! 

It is alarming how many times this situation is found!

Commercially manufactured play equipment must pass testing that prohibits this potentially dangerous spacing.   If you have a park that is intended for public uses, buy only commercial equipment that is manufactured to meet stringent safety guidelines.

Bicycle helmets can pose a serious danger if children wear them while playing on play equipment.  An opening typically large enough to pass safety testing and allow kids to pass through easily and safely could suddenly become too small with the added width of a bicycle helmet on a child’s head. Custom signage at your park could warn of the dangers of wearing bicycle helmets while playing on the play equipment.

Does your park post the ages that the structure is designed for?  Does it have rules of supervision?  It is important to state what age group the structure is intended for and that children have adult supervision.  Posting your park rules at the entrance to your park allows you to suggest appropriate ages of children allowed on the equipment and other rules to help ensure safety.  While identifying and eliminating hazards on or around play equipment offers protection against injuries, it does not eliminate the need for adult supervision.

A “use zone” is the area around the play components to allow for safer, unobstructed play. Inadequate allowance of use zone, such as equipment that is placed too closely to trees, borders and other objects or that do not provide an adequate cushion are not in compliance federal guidelines for public use.

When discussing “Use Zones”, we must also emphasize the need for adequate impact attenuating material or “safety surfacing” under and around play equipment as an important way to reduce and prevent serious injuries to children.  Adequate impact attenuating material cushions falls to reduce or prevent serious injuries.  It is important to properly maintain your fall zones as well.  Keep surfacing adequate and in good shape. 

Commercial play equipment must also allow for clearance around components and do not allow swings to be a part of a composite play structure.

Swings and Tire Swings that are attached to public playstructures are not compliant with recommended safety guidelines. (ASTM F1487 Standard 8.6.1.1 & 8. 8.6.2.1)  While having swings attached to the playstructure may save space and money, especially when comparing the cost of a backyard-type structure to a commercial structure; it is not in compliance with the ASTM standards for public use.

The fact that we all know someone who grew up with hard-packed earth under their swing sets or play equipment does not discount the importance of a safe place to land!  Some popular surfacing options are Engineered Wood Fiber, Loose-fill Rubber Mulch, Poured-in-Place Rubber Surfacing and Artificial Turf

This photo illustrates an area that by ASTM standards is a “designated play surface” (ASTM F1487-07 3.1.10). Though it is doubtful that the manufacturer of this structure intended children to play or sit up in this roofed tower, it is easily accessible by climbing the panels that enclose the decks. This board is 11 feet from the pea gravel below.  The pea gravel below is approximately 5” in depth and will not provide adequate protection for a fall from this height.  

A certified playground safety inspector can identify hazards that may exist on playgrounds.  Find National Playground Safety Inspectors (NPSI certified) on the NRPA website

Proper maintenance and inspection of your park area helps ensure that safety surfacing is adequate, playstructure components are not cracked or broken, and that hardware is correct, in good condition, and tight. 

Installation of equipment should be performed by professional installers who are specially trained and understand current safety standards.

Improper hardware or missing hardware can create protrussion hazards and entanglement dangers. Drawstrings, hoods, collars, etc., can become hooked on protruding objects or trapped in cracks and crevice openings creating strangulation or entanglement hazards.  Be aware of this danger especially at the entrance to slides, elevated decks and climbing activities! 

Cracked, broken and poorly designed equipment can create areas that cause pinch, crush or shear points. Below examples illustrate cracked coatings on a climber or component that requires a hand grip to climb up. The mounting bracket on this swaying bridge component could pinch.

A playground should be a safe place for children of all ages to play.  Please take time to learn more about playground safety.   With awareness, steps can be taken to correct situations that may pose a risk or danger, making playgrounds safer for children. Please keep children safe- it is important to us all.

The International Play Equipment Manufacturers Association has more information on the safety certification and standards that they require for commercial playground equipment. To learn more about the testing process and more about playground safety, please visit: www.ipema.org

The National Playground Safety Institute (NPSI) certifies individuals who have attended classes and passed testing over the Federal safety standards and guidelines.   Visit the National Recreation and Park Association website for more information on the safety certification, park inspections and playground safety.  www.nrpa.org  

Please visit these websites to learn more: 

• Consumer Product Safety Commission
• American Society for Testing and Materials

Contact Creative Components for a FREE Evalution of your playstructure.

Disclaimer:  The information posted on this website is offered to help raise awareness of safety issues on playground equipment.  The issues cited or referred to on this site are taken from CPSC, ASTM and IPEMA safety standards and guidelines that are in place for commercial play equipment that is intended for public use.  This is by no means a complete list of the safety standards and guidelines. By posting this information we hope to provide an overview of some of the safety guidelines and standards in place for public playground equipment.