Vernal Williams Jr., 6, died last week after being struck in the head by a falling swing set on the playground at his school in Grand Bahama.
In September, 2022 a seven year old girl also lost her life due to the collapse of a swing set in New Providence.
Licensed Playground Contractor, Cleveland Rolle spoke with ZNS News about the importance of proper installation and maintenance of playground equipment. He said, “every school that has playground installation carried out their first focus should be safety. I’ve seen where swing sets were installed and they are creating a border for a sand fill which means its an impact absorbent surface and they try to create a border but they don’t know the fall zone. That is the case that once a child swings and they fall they fall into the zone.”
Rolle also outlined what playground installation entails beyond installing the equipment. “You’re talking now about footing,. You’re talking about making sure the playground was installed, the holes were dug, posts were cemented. Kids, their job is not to think of safety.”
According to Minister of Education and Technical and Vocational Training, the Hon. Glenys Hanna-Martin meetings are planned to ensure safety protocols moving forward. “We’re gonna meet this week to ensure that a much more closer look is given, having regard to this terrible incident, to ensuring that the protocols and the policies are being effectuated in these various private pre-schools and even in our own pre-schools.”
The minister promised to provide an update as soon as more information becomes available.
