Safety in playgrounds
Safety guidelines in playgrounds
There are regulations that provide a series of guidelines for playground manufacturers to comply with when designing and manufacturing a playground.
These standards specify the requirements that will protect the child from harm that they are not able to foresee when using the play equipment. Basically, we have two types of regulations, those that refer to parks for residential or private use and those related to parks for public use. The approvals for private use are specified in the EN71 standard and those for public use are specified in EN1176.
The compliance with these certifications ensures that the park meets the following safety measures:
- Avoid fall risks.
- Separation of elements to prevent finger and hand trapping.
- Prevent head entrapment.
- Avoid strangulations.
- Robust structural design.
- Use of resistant and durable materials.
- Maximum height of the access steps to the game.
- Maximum height of the game in case of a fall.
- Safety railings on the platforms and exits of the slides.
- Use of protectors on visible screws to prevent injuries.
- No use of harmful chemical components for the user, for the manufacturing of components.
Safety areas in the installation of playgrounds:
All approved parks specify in their technical sheet the required safety area around the park, which must be free of elements or obstacles. This is known as the "fall-free space." Respecting the fall-free space described in the manual will ensure the user's safety against accidental falls during the use of the equipment. The fall-free space is specified for each game and is calculated based on the maximum height from which the user could fall. The fall-free space is usually 1.5 to 2m around all the equipment.
Pavement:
The type of pavement in the safety area is also regulated by the EN1176 standards, which clearly specify that the playground must be installed on a soft surface, whether natural, sand, grass, etc., or using synthetic materials. The thickness of the soft material is determined by the free fall height of each equipment.
Usage ages:
The guidelines described above also determine the age of use for each game based on the ease of access or getting on it. In this way, we find two large groups of games:
- Age group from 3 years, which incorporate ramps or difficult accesses to prevent the ascent of children under 3 years.
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The parks for all ages, including those under 3 years old, where access is easier, with stairs and ramps with a slight incline.
At Juegoyjardin, we must stay up to date with all the safety regulations for playgrounds, which is why we wanted to convey this in our article. For more information, you can contact our children's playground store.
