The Playground Safety Institute is the leading authority in playground safety in South Africa

The South African National Standards include:

              General requirements and test Methods for playground equipment

              Surfacing requirements underneath playground equipment

              Inflatable amusement and play equipment - Safety requirements and test methods

Events with mobile amusement rides have recently come to the attention of Public Safety Authorities. This includes giant slides, other large inflatable amusement play equipment, mechanical bull rides, zip lines, motorised go-carts, quad bikes et cetera have also caused serious injuries and fatalities to children and adults.

The SANS standards are used in conjunction with the following statutory and common laws in litigation and for compensation for injury and death.

              care)

              at public schools. (Section 8A, 8B, 8D, 8E, 8F, 9,4)

              development centres, exposure of children to dangerous structures, this includes dangerous

              and poorly maintained play structures or absence of maintenance)

              playground equipment and unsafe inflatable jumping castles, slides etc)

All Stakeholders must ensure compliance with the standards. These stakeholders include:

              inflatable amusement ride manufacturers

It is recommended that an annual safety audit be conducted on your playground equipment by a playground safety professional. These audits will help you to identify hazards on your playground and playground equipment. The audit will help you to eliminate, mitigate and control any hazards which are dangerous or life threatening and should be part of your playground safety management programme.

By selecting a Playground Safety Auditor that is registered with the Playground Safety Institute, will ensure that your auditor has been trained and tested according to international standards and best practice.

Certification for playground safety auditors is only valid for three years. Ensure that your playground safety auditor has in-date certification. Check for expiry date of certification or contact the Playground Safety Institute to see if the playground safety auditor is currently certified.

email:   admin@playsafety.co.za

Every year serious injuries such traumatic brain injuries, spinal injuries, lacerations, fractures, eye injuries and even fatalities have occurred on  playgrounds at schools, crèches and public parks. Most often lack of or poor maintenance, poor equipment layout, inappropriate protective surfacing under playground equipment and inadequate supervision has been largely accountable for these accidents.

There exist many theories as to why there are so many injuries: from the very young user who walks in front of a moving swing to an aggressive older child who slides down a slide upside down and backwards, to the playground owner who lacks the knowledge to prevent unreasonable risk of harm to the curious and probing child, especially pre-school and school owners.

The following methods can help to prevent serious injury and death on playgrounds:

Standards are generally considered the minimum standard of care. This standard of care is imposed by the new "Duty of Care" application of the law.

The aim of the standards is to reduce the severity of accidents and deaths. The international community has been using playground safety standards as early as 1976 and in some countries even as early as 1929

The implementation of playground safety standards internationally has proven to reduce accidents and deaths by as much as 80%. This is a triumph which cannot be ignored and South Africa cannot continue to deny or ignore the reality of serious injuries and deaths on playgrounds in South Africa

The Playground Safety Institute assisted the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) with publishing playground safety standards for South Africa in 2010.