Introduction

To better control the development of EN 1176, CEN TC 136 SC1 has produced a template for the submission of comments or requests for change to the standard. An example of the template can be found in Annex A.

The intention of the safety standard for playground equipment was to avoid situations in which a child, due to his age or ability or stage of development, is unable to foresee and comprehend a risk.

It was the intention to control traps and risks from which severe harm could occur for the user.

In consideration of this, the task group chose the form of a report in which the objective mentions repeatedly that the aim of the standard is always to protect the child from harm.

It has become apparent that users of the standard have sometimes lost sight of this and were just considering dimensions, functionality or spaces and special equipment parts without regard for the safety aim.

When considering the complexity of equipment and the efforts to provide safety, these efforts should be proportionate to the incidents that take place in real life.

Dimensions should not be taken as absolute because juristic and safety treatments are different in relation to the risk of a deviation from the standard.

A large number of the objectives for the rationales are repeated. This is intentional as it reinforces the safety aim of the standard and prevents the misunderstanding of a rationale when taken in isolation.

Working on the rationales for the single paragraphs, it became obvious for the task group that there where parts in the standard which had been discussed very often and deeply (e.g. the damping qualities of surfaces, HIC) and there were other parts that had no or very little discussions (e.g. hard edges at the end of a falling space).

Noticing this it was nearly self-evident to have an assessment / evaluation proposal for all requirements:

a) fundamental safety issues:
1. 1) safety installations / regulations have to prevent situations that may cause the death of a user;
2. 2) safety installations / regulations have to prevent situations that may lead to a loss of extremities of a user;
3. 3) safety installations / regulations have to prevent situations that may cause a lifetime disability (e.g. blindness, paraplegia);
4. 4) safety installations / regulations have to prevent situations in which a user is not able to free himself out of a trap;
b) basic safety issues:
1. 1) safety installations / regulations should prevent situations which overburden the user according to his age and prevent accidents like bone fractures, bruises, abrasions;
c) standard issues:
1. 1) man-made playground equipment is necessary because urban environments may not offer natural play facilities. Therefore, this kind of equipment is meant to advance the development of the child.

As there are very different development levels during childhood it means that the equipment has to be engineered in such a tricky way that it supports the several stages of development and screens the different age groups.

At least it should be mentioned that the requirements of the standard are just a concern about the effect of an equipment on the user. They do not consider the necessity and the social impact of a playground e.g. in areas where children have no natural resources with which they could play.

The standard cannot account for the behaviour of children. The ideal is that children should use the play environment as a means of personal development. However, it is accepted that the behaviour of children cannot be controlled by a technical standard. The best way to deal with this is to adopt a Risk Assessment process, which will allow the behaviour of children to be considered as part of the inspection of the play environment.

The Risk Assessment has to take into account the competence and ability of the potential users of the equipment and the foreseeable risks to those users. It is possible to allow greater challenge and opportunity in play equipment by controlling access to equipment, the control of access has to take in to account the abilities and skills of the user. The standard lists some ways in which access can be controlled.

It is not possible to control the way in which parents or carers may influence the use of play equipment, in particular if they allow, encourage or assist children to overcome controls on access imposed by the designer.

This technical report does not review the annexes of the different parts of the standard EN 1176.

There is no overlap with EN 71‑8.

In order to create a common consciousness of the standard the task group rationales recommend considering the following SC1 statement:

‘A strong principle of EN 1176 is to accept that some risks offer a strong benefit to users in their development. These are usually those that are apparent/foreseeable and offer excitement and challenge to the provision’.

PD CEN/TR 16598:2023

Collection of rationales for EN 1176. Requirements

Current

Published:

31 May 2023