Improved safety standards are needed to better protect younger children at playgrounds

Playground-related traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) in children remain a considerable problem world-wide and current safety standards are being questioned due to historical reasons where the injury thresholds had been perpetuated from automobile industry. Here we investigated head injury mechanisms due to falls on playgrounds using a previously developed and validated age-scalable and positionable whole body child model impacted at front, back and side of the head simulating head-first falls from 1.59 meters (m). The results show that a playground material passing the current testing standards (HIC < 1000 and resultant linear acceleration <200 g) resulted in maximum strain in the brain higher than known injury thresholds, thus not offering sufficient protection especially for younger children. The analysis highlights the age dependence of head injuries in children due to playground falls and the youngest have a higher risk of brain injury and skull fracture. Further, the results provide the first biomechanical evidence guiding age-dependent injury thresholds for playground testing standards. The results also have direct implications for novel designs of playground materials for a better protection of children from TBIs. Only making the playground material thicker and more compliant is not sufficient. This study represents the first initiative of using full body human body models of children as a new tool to improve playground testing standards and to better protect the children at playgrounds.