Personal Injury Cases at Playgrounds

Children enjoy playing outside, especially if there are structures such as playgrounds to play on. Sometimes these playgrounds are not of sound structure or hazards can be present without the parent or child knowing. When a child gets hurt from a playground hazard, there is a potential personal injury case.

Common Playground Injuries

Every child suffers an injury at some point in their childhood. Some of these injuries might be worse than others, but responsibility for their injury must be determined.

Here are a few of the injuries that are commonly seen from playground accidents:

• Internal Injury: Although it may not be evident by looking at the child, a child could sustain an internal injury, such as poisoning from the chemicals used to clean the playground equipment.
• Bruising: Every child will have a bruise at one point or another. In fact, several bruises may show up unexplained. When a child is playing on the slide, they may not notice that one of the bolts on the slide are loose or sticking up and this could cause damage to the child’s skin such as a bruise or a severe scratch and possibly a bleeding wound.
• Broken Bones: The impact from a hard hit can definitely cause bones to break or fracture. These incidents can come from being flung from a merry go round or falling through a rotted platform.
• Dislocation: This too can occur from being flung from an object on the playground or falling through platforms or between bars that were originally intended to keep the children safe at a high distance. Falling off of playground equipment can also lead to dislocation or fractures and breaks.

Playground injuries can happen to any child that is playing on a playground in any location. The design of the playground or poor maintenance are normally the top two causes of personal injury to children. Problems that can be seen over time such as deterioration of the playground equipment can be hazardous for small children and is the sole responsibility of the park’s owner, whether it is private, county, state, or federal.

Other things that could potentially create a hazard for children include rotting wood, sharp edges, screws or nails that protrude out from the equipment, slippery surfaces, frail ropes, or elemental exposure hazards. An accident could also occur from a child running and playing on the ground at the playground and tripping over a root that is protruding from the ground or possibly branches from last night’s storm. In any case, the responsible party is the one who is in charge of maintaining a safe environment for the children to play in and on.