Columnist Susan Snyder: Not falling for this explanation

Friday, July 27, 2001 | 8:51 a.m.

Susan Snyder's column appears Fridays, Sundays and Tuesdays. Reach her at snyder@lasvegassun.com or 259-4082.

A study released this week has concluded that playgrounds are dangerous places to play.

The study, conducted by a group of Cincinnati pediatricians, examined injuries kids suffered from 1992 to 1997, and was published in the current issue of Ambulatory Pediatrics.

It says 44 percent of the moderate-to-severe injuries children were treated for in emergency rooms were the results of falls from playground equipment.

The study does not specify, however, whether "falls" include the longstanding playground tradition of "jumping off."

It doesn't matter how high the equipment or what surface lies underneath. Kids will jump off and tell the adults they "fell."

Julie Frizzell and I "fell" every time either of us rode a seesaw with my next-door neighbor, Ricky Patton.

Well, of course he jumped off. He'd go along just long enough to make you think this time would be different and then he'd bail.

Yeah, makes me wince, too. Still.

Playgrounds are dangerous. That's why they're fun. There is nothing quite like the feeling of running full-speed at a horizontal bar, leaping at it in hopes of twirling around it on your belly, and quickly realizing that you didn't leap high enough.

Julie laughed. I cracked two ribs. Told Mom I "fell."

The study says the number of injuries might decrease if designers lowered the height of playground equipment to something less than 4.9 feet. Ricky pushed me off the middle of the slide once. The fall was about four feet.

Twisted my ankle. Told Mom I "fell."

And, the playground pundits said, if all else fails we need to change the surfaces onto which these "falls" take place.

Concrete, asphalt and hard-packed dirt, they said, hurt when children fall on them.

Huh. Who'd have thought?

The experts advocate using wood chips, spongy synthetic material, sand or gravel (always fun for picking out of the knees) under monkey bars and swing sets.

They made no mention of plain old grass, which is what was under the swings when Julie and I conducted another of the matches in our ongoing competition to see who could swing highest.

The winner was determined by seeing who could then jump from the seat and land farthest from the swing set.

Lost most of the skin on both knees more than once. Told Mom I "fell."

Maybe we should just do away with playground equipment altogether.

After all, we've already cut back drastically on physical education classes and recess. There's a good chance they lack the experience and ability to take these unavoidable "falls" of childhood.

Besides, the Centers for Disease Control figures say 13 percent of kids ages 6 to 11 are overweight, stemming from too much food, too much television and not enough physical activity. A brisk walk around the block would be enough to injure a good portion of them.

Let's just pull out all the monkey bars and keep kids in safe, structured adult-supervised activities such as youth soccer leagues.

That way, the kids will get in shape, and only the parents will get hurt.