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Brooklyn Bridge Park's Climbing Domes: Toys or Danger to Children?
A new Brooklyn playground was temporarily closed due to equipment burning children and causing other injuries.
May 25, 2010 /Parenting PR News/ -- Brooklyn Bridge Park's Climbing Domes: Toys or Danger to Children?
A new Brooklyn playground is generating more fury than fun. One month after opening an $800,000 playground, the city temporarily closed the facility. Parents and advocacy groups are upset about the facility, which they say has improper foam surfacing, and steel domes that can burn children and cause other injuries.
Parents first brought attention to the new park with demands to remove the domes. They say the domes can become dangerously hot as they bake in the sun. The outcry led the city to cover the domes with tents, which must be moved throughout the day, and may not keep off the sun's heat during all hours.
Park officials suggest the potential burns are only a temporary issue, as new trees will soon be planted to shade the metal domes. They also have hung warning signs urging "extreme caution" on hot days. However, the trees may take years to grow large enough to shade the metal, and hot summer days are quickly approaching.
Even if they solve the heat issue, further problems have come to light, including a 5-year-old girl's broken nose and chipped tooth, which were blamed on the steel structures. This month, the city briefly closed the facility to replace broken rubber surfacing, but the domes are still in place.
Playgrounds were once full of hot metal structures and wooden parts that could crack and splinter, and may be pressure-treated and potentially chemical-laden. Much of the dangerous equipment has been replaced with bright, creative plastic equipment. The new structures have cut injury rates in half.
Still, each year, 200,000 playground injuries send kids to emergency rooms or worse. Between 1990 and 2000, playground injuries killed 147 children, including 82 strangulations and 31 falls to the ground.
The safer playgrounds prompt fewer lawsuits than in decades past, and the threat of lawsuits has led many cities to put more focus on safety. Juries are often sympathetic to injured children, and potential dangers lurk all over the playground. Legal charges against playground manufacturers and operators include disability access issues, negligence, lead poisoning and inadequate protective surfacing.
If your child has suffered injury caused by an unsafe playground, it is important to speak to an attorney to learn more about your rights and the best legal options available to you to protect your child and seek compensation for his or her injuries.
Article provided by The Law Offices of Maxwell S. Pfeifer
Visit us at www.mspfeifer.com
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