Climbing Frame Critical Fall Heights
It is important to measure the critical fall height of a playset in order to keep children safe from critical injury in the event of an accident.
What is Critical Fall Height?
A climbing frame’s critical fall height can be described as the height at which a child could fall from the playset and potentially end up with critical injuries. Of course there are some very rare exceptions and there may be other times when injuries can occur. For example children can fall over and suffer a bad injury even if they are just running next to the play frame. However, critical fall height is a safety specification that all climbing frame manufacturers can work to.
Safety Flooring and Critical Fall Height
Playground surfaces or safety flooring for children’s climbing frames can determine the critical fall height also. The thickness or impact absorption of a safety surface will increase the height in which a fall from a play frame becomes critical as the greater the impact absorption the less serious the injury to a child. Safety flooring manufacturers should always keep critical fall heights to hand when installing a safety surface due to this reason. The critical fall height of the playset will determine what thickness of safety flooring is required.
The Critical Fall Height will be calculated by taking the height of the tallest part of the climbing frame that children can stand on. For example it won’t be taken from the height of the roof. Often the highest point of the climbing frame that kids can reach is the play deck. The highest point of the climbing frame will govern how thick a safety flooring must be. The level of impact absorption of different types of safety flooring will be taken into account too.
Domestic and Commercial Climbing Frame Regulations
With Domestic climbing frames that are purchased for use in your own garden, safety flooring is not legally deemed essential, although it is still encouraged for safety reasons. Grass may be an adequate cushion for minor falls or trips however if children are to fall from the highest part of the climbing frame which is often over 1m high, then a safety surface can prevent a minor injury turning into a critical one.
Commercial playsets for use in playgrounds, parks, schools, nurseries, pubs and so on are legally required to have safety flooring installed. There are a number of safety standards which commercial climbing frames must comply with. Where there is risk of children falling from the play frame from 1m or more, there is a legal requirement for safety surfacing to be in place. With commercial play frames that are used by large numbers of children, it is well worth investing in the correct safety flooring for the particular critical fall height of the playset.
For help and advice or to order a bespoke children’s climbing frame from Play Crazy, please contact our team by emailing: shop@playcrazy.co.uk.