by David Carter
8 October 2010
An Essex mum is considering claiming compensation on her daughter’s behalf after she was injured at a play park.
Rhianna Wallace, who is ten, broke both wrists when she fell two metres from a climbing frame in Great Notley Parkon August 16th this year. Her mother, Brina Smith, alleges that Essex County Council did not adequately protect users of the playground from harm. She says that a single layer of wood chippings on the ground below the frame was not sufficient, and argues that further cushioning material should have been in place.
A paramedic who surveyed the scene described the equipment as ‘hazardous’ and said the ground on which Rhianna fell was ‘a hard surface.’
Rhianna, from Colchester, needed a pin in her right wrist to hold the bones in place, and had to wear plaster casts on both arms for a month after the accident and is still unable to take part in PE and other activities.
Figures released reveal that 27 people were hurt in the same park between June and September.