Accident Claim For Girl Injured On Climbing Frame

A woman is making an accident claim after her ten year old daughter broke her leg while playing on a spinning climbing frame at a new play park in East Lothian.

The girl was playing in the park, which cost £70,000 to build, on Easter Sunday, when her leg slipped under the base of the spinning climbing frame.

The climbing frame is known as the 'witch's hat' due to it's distinctive pointed shape and it spins round, sometimes at high speeds, which the girl's mother feels can be dangerous.

Following the accident the girl spent four days in the Sick Kids Hospital before she was released with a wheelchair to use to get around until her leg heals.

The accident left her with a spiral fracture of her right tibia and she expects to be in a cast for at least six weeks.

In the meantime she relies on a wheelchair to get around and her parents have had to install a temporary ramp at their home to accommodate their daughter.

Once the cast is removed she will have to endure weeks of physiotherapy to enable her to use her leg normally again.

Her mother is seeking compensation from East Lothian Council for the accident and the pain and discomfort her daughter has endured as well as the impact the injury has had on the family.

Her parents feel that safety at the new play park needs to be reviewed, particularly concerning the spinning climbing frame which the girl had her accident on .

"It's a beautiful park and I don't want the children to suffer or lose out in any way. But there needs to be better restrictions on the 'witch’s hat' because it's simply not safe – some kids hang on to the outside and end up spinning so fast that they are practically horizontal, and the bark covering the base is blown away and left exposed," said the girl's mother.

Since starting the accident claim on behalf on their daughter, the family have discovered that there have been numerous accidents on the climbing frame in question.

"We've heard that four other children have hurt themselves in the past few weeks," said the girl's mother.

Despite the widespread concerns about safety, a family fun day to mark the grand opening of the new play area will go ahead, featuring children's entertainer 'Tricky Ricky' and 'Bingo' the puppet dog.

A council spokeswoman defended the council's safety regulations, saying: "We are very sorry to hear of this accident. All East Lothian Council play equipment is installed to meet health and safety standards and is maintained by trained staff. Our health and safety officers are carrying out a full investigation to establish what happened and to prevent any recurrence."

The amount of compensation the family are seeking has not been disclosed, but as a broken leg is a serious injury and they have had to make modifications to their home, they could be looking at a figure in the thousands if they are successful in their claim.