Parents of children burned by hot playground equipment are criticizing the NYC Parks Department, WNBC is reporting. Surfaces have reached 166 degrees in the hot weather over the last week or so, and according to Park Department Authorities, burns happen easily with any temperatures over 140 degrees.
At least two children have suffered burns already.
City Council hearings were held on the problem about a year and a half ago, but Geoffrey Croft, of NYC Park Advocates, said they did no good and that this is a citywide problem.
The flooring on the equipment itself is The flooring on the equipment itself is hot, but it’s not dangerously hot, authorities told News 4 New York. It’s when the kids climb down to the bottom and touch the rubber mat that can be scalding.
Parents said at the very least, the parks department should post clear signs near the mats, and eventually replace them with a safer, cooler material.
(Source: WNBC)
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3 Responses
This seems pretty logical to me.
Parents should simply tell their children to stay away from such things in these warm days.
Metal things get hot, yes.
The sidewalk grips on outside stairways in Jerusalem also get so hot that you can burn your hand from them; yet nobody here is complaining to the municipality about that.
And the keys of ATMs get very hot also, yet I never heard anybody complaing about that yet. (Davka it would be really nice if the banks would use a type of keys that get less hot, because those ATM buttons get REALLY hot sometimes.)
Wouldn’t we rather have our children learn some degree of caution? So many normal dangers are taken out of the realm of possibility for them, I’m not sure they are left with a normal sense of care and caution when proceeding into a new arena of activity. I don’t want injuries, but I also don’t want the world so child-safe that there is no common sense left. If something is in the sun on a 100 degree day, it will get hot. That’s not a bad lesson.
The city has responsibility in this since one does not know the surface is too hot until it’s too late and it is discovered someone is injured, heaven forbid.