Guide to the installation, inspection, maintenance and operation of playground equipment and surfaces according to the current standard UNI EN-1176-7:2020
Definition of playgrounds
Playgrounds are defined as all those equipped spaces, guarded or unattended, intended for the playful activity of children and young people usually up to 14 years of age: the courtyard of the nursery, kindergarten or primary school, the small neighbourhood playground, oratory or apartment block, the play areas of urban and suburban parks, the facilities of restaurants, bars, tourist villages, clubs, shopping centres and bathing establishments.
Playground equipment is defined as all those fixed structures, for individual or collective use by children, such as slides, swings, roundabouts and swings, installed in outdoor or indoor areas open to the public.
The liability of playgrounds in the event of an accident:
In recent years, increased attention on the part of manufacturers and operators of playgrounds has reduced the number of accidents, however, accidents still sometimes happen. The causes can be attributed, on the one hand, to the instinct of discovery and defiance of danger that characterises the psychomotor development of children and, on the other hand, to the presence of dilapidated equipment, lacking in safety precautions and protections or inadequately inspected and maintained.
In the complex reality of an equipped play area, the identification of the respective responsibilities, in the case of accidents, must be assessed on a case-by-case basis and can be attributed to:
- to the supplier if the equipment does not originally comply with the technical safety standard EN 1176;
- to the Administration staff or the manager who equipped the area (municipality, school, shopping centre, etc.) in the case of a problem related to the incorrect installation or maintenance of the equipment;
- to the carers (educators or parents) who have a duty to ensure that the equipment made available to the children is used correctly and in a reasonably foreseeable manner, especially the youngest (under 36 months) who must be constantly supervised during play.
Existing laws and regulations
The absence of specific national and EU laws for the safety of playground equipment should not lead to the assumption that it does not need regulation.
In fact, there is an obligation for manufacturers to place only safe products on the market (European Directive 95/2001 on general product safety and Decree Law 21 no. 172 of May 2004), i.e. products that do not present health risks to users or at least minimise the possibility of incurring any risk or danger.
A product is considered safe when it is manufactured in compliance with technical safety standards relating to design and manufacture. In the playground sector, the following technical standards exist as a means of guaranteeing safety:
- EN 1176 / EN 1177 (equipment and surfaces for play areas);
- UNI 11123 (design of parks and outdoor play areas).
Homologation – Certification
The certification of playground facilities by TÜV or other institutes is not required by law, but the standards for the construction and testing of products for public parks must always be complied with: the current UNI EN-1176.
The most safety-conscious manufacturers have certified their equipment to guarantee compliance with the standard. The European certification body TÜV SÜD checks that all requirements of the standard are met and issues a product certificate.
Retroactivity of standards
No technical standard is retroactive, in the event of an accident and complaint it will be the expert or judge who will assess each case and the outcome may always be different. The advice is to have obsolete structures inspected by a qualified technician, assess their criticality and intervene by evaluating costs and benefits without, of course, neglecting safety.
Playground installation
Playground equipment and surfaces must be safely installed in accordance with the conditions and procedures provided by the manufacturer, in particular:
- safety distance (minimum surrounding space)
- orientation of equipment in relation to the sun and wind, especially for metal structures that get hot in the sun and can create burns
- anti-shock surfaces: higher fall heights require the use of particularly soft and ‘shock-absorbing’ surfaces.
Each installed structure must be provided with a use, inspection and maintenance manual drawn up by the manufacturer and given to the operator/owner of the playground.
Identification of playground equipment
All playground equipment installed in a public park must be correctly identifiable by means of a nameplate containing the name of the manufacturer, the year of construction, the product code, the reference to the standard in force and the recommended age for use of the play equipment.
