Playground Safety

June 21, 2005

Each year, more than 200,000 children go to U.S. hospital emergency rooms with injuries associated with playground equipment, this equates to one child being injured every two and a half minutes. Most injuries occur when a child falls from the equipment onto the ground. Many backyard play-sets are placed on dirt or grass–surfaces that do not adequately protect children when they fall.

Occurrence and Consequences:

• About 45% of playground-related injuries are severe—fractures, internal injuries, concussions, dislocations, and amputations.
• About 75% of nonfatal injuries related to playground equipment occur on public playgrounds. Most occur at schools and daycare centers.
• Between 1990 and 2000, 147 children ages 14 and younger died from playground-related injuries. Of them, 82 (56%) died from strangulation and 31 (20%) died from falls to the playground surface. Most of these deaths (70%) occurred on home playgrounds.
• In 1995, playground-related injuries among children ages 14 and younger cost an estimated $1.2 billion (Office of Technology Assessment 1995).
• While all children who use playgrounds are at risk for injury, girls sustain injuries (55%) slightly more often than boys (45%) (Tinsworth 2001).
• Children ages 5 to 9 have higher rates of emergency department visits for playground injuries than any other age group. Most of these injuries occur at school (Phelan 2001).

To set up an interview with a REMSA representative, please call Elizabeth Cattell at 775.858.5700.

REMSA is a private, not-for-profit emergency medical services system serving northern Nevada. REMSA’s state-of-the-art 9-1-1 dispatch communications center is fully accredited, as are all emergency medical transport services of the company. REMSA provides quality patient care with no taxpayer support or other subsidies.

450 Edison Way Reno, Nevada 89502 (775)858-5700 Fax (775)858-5720