Safety hazards at children’s playground need urgent attention to prevent serious injuries

There is nothing wrong with the children’s park at the Punanga Nui Market that a bulldozer with a nice wide blade couldn’t fix.
That’s the opinion of Ake Hosea Winterflood after a CITV investigation on Tuesday revealed the play area is filled with broken equipment and other obvious safety hazards.
Winterflood operates The Lazy Diner on the market grounds and, from her hut, has a perfect view of the park and its occupants. A track and field coach with the ANZ Tamariki Sports programme, she is trained to be aware of her surroundings and any potential for mishaps.
“I’m running the café but as soon as I see children come into the park, my eyes focus on them,” she told a Cook Islands Herald reporter the day after CITV ran a story on the dangers posed by such perils as exposed nails and screws, and loose and dangling chains.
“I could have something cooking on the stove and, because I’m concentrating on the kids, sometimes I turn around and my food is burnt,” Winterflood added.
Because there are no signs in the playground, most people assume it is operated by the Punanga Nui Market. CITV, however, revealed that the area is actually the responsibility of the Cook Islands Investment Corporation.
After CITV started making enquires on Tuesday, Winterflood watched as two men from CIIC arrived at the park later that day. The first man, she said, didn’t even bother going into the playground but, instead, went looking for the market manager’s office.
Curious as to why it would take two CIIC employees to investigate such an obvious situation, Winterflood approached the second man to ask what was happening.
“He said the guy who came before to check came back to the office and said there is nothing wrong with the park,” said Winterflood. “I said, ‘Excuse me? Nothing wrong with the park?’ There is something wrong with this children’s park from the entrance right to the end.”
Winterflood escorted the second man through the park, pointing out the crack in the plastic slide, the nails exposed where slates of wood had been torn loose, and the way the ground under the swings has been worn down to bedrock.
She explained how, in a pair of recent incidents, her husband had taken a boy to the hospital after he fell off a ladder and broke his arm, while a little girl had gouged her leg open on a nail.
“I showed him the danger of the place and, when he saw it, he couldn’t believe it himself,” she said. “The last word I said was, let’s bulldoze the whole thing down if no one can maintain this place, and turn it into a car park,” she said. “That way our children are safe. Or form a committee to take care of this park for our children.”
Obviously spooked by the prospect of being splashed across the evening TV news, someone from CIIC did come back later and do a bit of tidying up. The park, however, is still a disaster waiting to happen.
“I wouldn’t open this park to the kids right now,” said Winterflood. “I’d rather shut the gates on this park and work on it to get it back to a standard where our children are safe to play. I wouldn’t let my children come and play in this park in the situation it’s in right now.”

By John Ireland

Herald Issue 463 10 June
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