Deaths and Injuries on Public Playgrounds Public playground equipment continues to be a major cause of injury for children. Other causes of injury involve impact with moving equipment, running into stationary equipment, sharp edges, protrusions, pinch points, hot surfaces, and debris in the play area. Other causes of death involve strangulation, impact with moving equipment, and equipment failures or tipovers.
Strangulation accounts for almost half of all fatalities related to playground equipment.
Most strangulation incidents involve entanglement. Ropes, jump ropes, and leashes, either attached to equipment or being worn around a child's neck, have also been implicated in strangulation deaths. Similarly, free hanging ropes are also a cause of playground fatalities. The other major cause of strangulation is head entrapment. Children under the age of six suffer approximately 37 percent of all public playground equipment-related injuries, children between the ages of six and eight are involved in another 40 percent, and children over the age of eight are involved in another 23 percent.