Dangerous playground equipment - GIF

[Altair]

Dangerous playground equipment.




Previously:

Passenger plane turned into playground - photo
Jet Ponies carousel - videos
human powered ferris wheel
Collapsing amusement park ride - GIF
Kids' swing made from car - photos
Dog-powered revolving baby swing - GIF

[WmRMeyers]

Everything fun is dangerous.

[Frank S]

Probably no more so than us kids trying to make our swings do full 360s.

[WmRMeyers]

Probably no more so than us kids trying to make our swings do full 360s.

In my day, Sonny, we did lots of fun things with swings... I seem to recall doing a 360 inverted... accompanied with some bumps and bruises. Maybe I didn't quite make the 360, but I was definitely inverted!

We were tough kids. It was hard to kill us. Came close a few times.

My kids were not so challenged, I'm afraid.

[hemmjo]

I just send that video to my son and his wife, due in October!!! With a note that we need to build one for their back yard!!!

It is NOT nearly as dangerous as many other things kids are exposed to today!!!

[Frank S]

In my day, Sonny, we did lots of fun things with swings... I seem to recall doing a 360 inverted... accompanied with some bumps and bruises. Maybe I didn't quite make the 360, but I was definitely inverted!

We were tough kids. It was hard to kill us. Came close a few times.

My kids were not so challenged, I'm afraid.

The playground swings we had were made by a local welder out of 4 1/2" drill stem. buried in the ground about 6 ft. and they were still about 20 feet to the top of the "A" 5 "A"s in a row spaced far enough apart that 2 cars could park side by between them the top pipe ran the full length with 3 swing seats per section the last section had a pair of 4 person double swings on them looked like a picnic table without the table those hung on 4 pipes each. the swings had heavy chains probably about 1/4" we used to stand in the strap seats hold onto the chains get going as high as we could then dive out of them into a pile of sand . I never made a full 360, either but got high enough that instead fo the return swinging arc I cam straight down barely missing the top pipe.
How did we ever survive swinging on those things or climbing a jungle jim that was as tall as the swing with a steel slide coming off the top.

[WmRMeyers]

I just send that video to my son and his wife, due in October!!! With a note that we need to build one for their back yard!!!

It is nearly as dangerous as many other things kids are exposed to today!!!

I think this thing is much less dangerous that a lot of the stuff today's kids have to play with. If you mess up with it, all it will do is cripple or kill you. Some of the stuff they have to deal with now will do worse than that.

[WmRMeyers]

The playground swings we had were made by a local welder out of 4 1/2" drill stem. buried in the ground about 6 ft. and they were still about 20 feet to the top of the "A" 5 "A"s in a row spaced far enough apart that 2 cars could park side by between them the top pipe ran the full length with 3 swing seats per section the last section had a pair of 4 person double swings on them looked like a picnic table without the table those hung on 4 pipes each. the swings had heavy chains probably about 1/4" we used to stand in the strap seats hold onto the chains get going as high as we could then dive out of them into a pile of sand . I never made a full 360, either but got high enough that instead fo the return swinging arc I cam straight down barely missing the top pipe.
How did we ever survive swinging on those things or climbing a jungle jim that was as tall as the swing with a steel slide coming off the top.

Had something very much like those at the elementary school where I did kindergarten to 5th grade. We didn't have a sand pile by it, though. You could have a lot of fun on those swings! Those were the days, my friend...

[hemmjo]

When I was teaching, the district insurance company did a "risk assessment" of all of the schools, playgrounds etc. They made the district remove all of the moving type of playground equipment because it was too dangerous. This included swings, teeter totters (seesaw), merry go rounds you pushed, sliding boards etc.

The were replaced by "big toys" made from wood you could climb on, but no slides, etc. The FIRST DAY with-in the first hour, a student fell and broke his arm really badly. After that there were more falls, head bumps, splinters, etc. Those injuries seldom happened with the good "old fashioned" toys.

Now I am retired and even the big toys are gone, only lines painted on the pavement for games, etc.

[WmRMeyers]

When I was teaching, the district insurance company did a "risk assessment" of all of the schools, playgrounds etc. They made the district remove all of the moving type of playground equipment because it was too dangerous. This included swings, teeter totters (seesaw), merry go rounds you pushed, sliding boards etc.

The were replaced by "big toys" made from wood you could climb on, but no slides, etc. The FIRST DAY with-in the first hour, a student fell and broke his arm really badly. After that there were more falls, head bumps, splinters, etc. Those injuries seldom happened with the good "old fashioned" toys.

Now I am retired and even the big toys are gone, only lines painted on the pavement for games, etc.

When I moved in here, the local elementary school in my neighborhood was doing weekly popcorn sales to students, faculty, and parents, to collect money to replace the old playground equipment that they'd had to take out. My youngest was born a few months before we bought the house, and my older kids started school at this school. When they left for other schools, when the youngest two kids were in, 3 & 5th grades, I think, the school was still doing the popcorn sales. The youngest is 24 this month. No playground equipment. And they had taken it out of the other schools in the district by the time I got my teaching license, in 2005. It's maybe a good thing my teaching career only lasted about 3 years.

Bill