A number of New York City’s playgrounds are falling into disrepair, and children are paying the price.
In the last several years, story after story has detailed the gruesome injuries that strike without warning in New York’s public play areas.
For their part, the frolicking tykes are doing exactly what they’re supposed to — they’re just kids being kids. The city, though, is supposed to protect them, and New York isn’t holding up its end of the bargain.
New York Playground Slide Slices Off a Six-Year-Old Girl’s Finger
Six-year-old Eridania Martinez, of Brooklyn, bounded down an aging slide at the Howard Playground in East New York.
As New York Daily News reports, she never saw the razor-sharp metal jutting from its side. Eridania held tight as she took that exhilarating plunge, the same dip that many of us can recall so fondly from our own childhoods.
Sadly, this was to be no ordinary slip down the slide. The protruding piece of metal sliced through the little girl’s right hand, cutting off the top of her middle finger. She was rushed to Bellevue Hospital, but the surgeons there were unable to reattach it.
That was nearly nine years ago. Sadly, the story was hardly a wakeup call for the city, nor was the $750,000 award that Eridania’s family won after the ordeal.
Hers is only one story among many, and they keep coming.
Troubling Statistics for New York Playground Injuries
Parents, take caution. These numbers mean that municipal playgrounds are a potential peril:
• Lawsuits alleging New York playground injuries have increased by 53% in the last decade.
• NBC New York reports that New York playground injury claims have cost city taxpayers more than $20 million.
• The same report shows that 197 “immediate attention” reports remained open for longer than four months during 2014-2015.
• City workers took 36 days on average to close “immediate action” work orders. The report cites one instance involving multiple large cracks in a sidewalk. More than 470 days after it was opened, that repair was still unresolved.
• NYC issued payouts for 556 playground injuries between 2010 and 2015.
• During that same period, the city settled 33 claims for $100,000 or more.
Playgrounds Should Be Reliably Safe
Public playgrounds are an essential part of the childhood experience. That’s particularly true in New York, where entire generations have made lasting memories in these parks.
The city has an obligation to adequately maintain its parks and playgrounds. More importantly, they have a duty to keep kids safe. High-dollar litigation hasn’t spurred officials toward meaningful action yet. Let’s hope that renewed pressure will finally make a change.
The children of New York City deserve better than this.
About the Author:
Bart Kaplan is a partner at the New York City law firm Kaplan Lawyers PC. Bart specializes in personal injury law and prides himself on helping accident victims and their families in Bronx, Queens, and Kings Counties, as well as all of New York City. Bart is also a member of the LawGuru Attorney Network.