Liability And Public Playground Injuries
Brian O Sutter
Personal Injury
[caption id="attachment_7117" align="alignleft" width="1024"] high school soccer player is injured[/caption]With no school and the beautiful weather, there’s no better place for children to spend their summers than on the playground. Public playgrounds are a great place for children to socialize, get exercise, and have fun. Yet sometimes, children can get hurt on the playground. So what happens if your child is injured on the playground? Who is liable for their injury? Most of the time playing on a playground comes with the assumption of risk. Meaning that everyone knows that children can get hurt if they aren’t careful. However that doesn’t mean that the local government cannot be held liable for an injury on a public playground.Teach Your Children Playground Safety
Playground accidents are very common. Cuts, scrapes, and bruises are bound to happen. So before letting your children loose on the playground you should teach them the basics of playground safety. First they should know to always follow the playground rules, so if the signs say not to climb or jump on something, they should not. Then make sure they understand how to operate all the playground equipment correctly so they don’t get injured from misusing the equipment. Finally, make sure they know what to do in the case of an accident. If they follow the basics of playground safety they are less likely to experience serious injuries.
Look For Safe Playground
However even when practicing good playground safety, children may still incur a severe injury. If the injury was not the result of the child’s own activities, it may be the result of an unsafe playground. So before letting your children play, you want to check the playground to make sure it’s properly maintained and has all the important safety features that will reduce the risk of injury. Make sure that the playground always has:
- Properly maintained equipment and grounds
- On site supervision
- Age appropriate equipment
- Guardrails especially on higher equipment like slides and platforms
- Safe protective ground surfaces like wood chips, sand, or rubber mats
- Rounded soft edges
- No exposed hardware or sharp protrusions
- No openings measuring between 3.5 and 9 inches where a child’s head could get caught
- No tripping hazards like improperly maintained rubber mats, rocks, or overgrown tree roots
- Outdated or banned playground equipment like monkey bars, tire swings, or pressure treated wood
Liability In Public Playground Injuries
If your child was exercising good playground safety, and they were still injured, the park may be may liable for the injury. Since most public parks are maintained by local governments they have governmental immunity. However there are cases for premises liability including:
- The playground equipment was not properly installed.
- The park contained banned playground equipment.
- The park was poorly designed and created the conditions for the injury.
- The playground equipment was not properly maintained.
In all of these cases you have to prove that your child’s injury was the result of the local government’s negligence in meeting these requirements. So in most cases to prove premise liability you will need to hire an attorney.
So if your child has been injured on a public playground and you believe the government was liable for the injury, contact the attorneys at All Injuries Law Firm. Our experienced attorneys can go over the local laws, help you establish premises liability, and inform you of your legal options. Our dedicated lawyers have years of experience with premises liability cases and have helped numerous families when their child has been injured. So call us today for a free consultation to find out how we can help you.