Playground Safety Inspection Tools

A playground is a fun place for children, but it sometimes has hidden dangers that can turn a good day into a hospital visit. It is very important that you inspect the playground before your child goes out to play. Supervision is also necessary during play, as this will facilitate quick response in case of any accident.

Checklist

A safety checklist is a very important part of a playground tool kit for safety inspection. The purpose of the checklist is to do a check to areas that can most likely have defaults and can cause danger while using the playground equipment. For instance, you will find that NRPA’s checklist, which is also known as the "Dirty Dozen", advises that equipment on a playground should not have openings of 3.5 – 9 inches. This is to prevent children from trying to slide through the opening and possibly getting trapped.

Web Stop Probe

This tool is also another very important playground safety tool. Web Stop probe is designed like a child’s finger and the joints are moveable. Its main purpose is to look out for tiny openings that could probably pinch, tear or crush a kid’s finger. This tool will be used by the safety inspectors to check out the playground for any edges that are rough, sharp corners and any dangerous openings.

Probes and Protrusion Gauge Kit

NRPA and also the safety inspection organizations are the ones that issue Probes and Protrusion Gauges kits. Probes come in 3 dimensional templates made of plastic. They are designed in a way that they have the image of a child’s bodily features. They will check the safety of the openings that are rigid and non-rigid on the available playground equipment. They will be looking out to see if there is a likelihood of any neck, head or torso trapping happening. The Protrusion gauges are plastic rings that come in various diameters & thickness. They assess if the pipes and posts in playground equipment can in any way cause harm.