Boy's death heightens playground concerns
A large metal ride fell over and killed a six-year-old boy at the playground of an Army dormitory in the Territorial Defence Department's compound yesterday, underlining research findings that 90 per cent of public playgrounds across the country are dangerous and not properly set up.
Primary school student Chakarin Suriwong was spinning the "global monkey bar" around with three neighbourhood friends in the small playground in front of the dormitory yesterday. The other children jumped off when the ride started to topple, causing it to fall on to Chakarin. The boy's father, Sergeant Charoensilp Suriwong, had just reached home when the accident happened and rushed him to hospital. However it was too late as Chakarin had suffered blood loss, torn heart tissues and suffered a crushed lung. Sergeant Charoensilp said the metal ride, which has four legs around a central column, was simply placed on the ground and had not been safely installed. Dr Adisak Palitpholkarnphim, head of research at Ramathibodi Hospital, who conducted a study on children's safety, said 90 per cent of playgrounds at schools and public places were dangerous because the equipment there did not match the children's development stages and were not installed properly. He said the main cause of child deaths on playgrounds was large and heavy rides toppling onto their stomach, chest or head, followed by falls on hard surfaces from rides that were too high from ground level. Adisak said rides in most playgrounds were not safe as they were not fixed in the ground. Moreover, only a few playgrounds have soft sand or rubber surfaces that are safe for children, he added. His study found that more than 30,000 children across the country were injured by playground rides each year, with swings and slides proving the most dangerous. In 2002, a global monkey bar fell on a five-year-old girl at a kindergarten school in Nonthaburi. The girl died after suffering blood loss, torn heart tissue, crushed lungs and broken ribs. Following the incident, Ramathibodi Hospital researchers worked together with the Industry Ministry, the Interior Ministry's Public Works Department and the Office of the Consumer Protection Board to draw up regulations on playground safety standards. Adisak said the regulations should have gone into effect last year but were held up by budget problems at the Industry Ministry.
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