Ten-Foot Jungle Gyms and the Risks of Life

A recent New York Times piece rightly blames today’s “boring” playgrounds on personal injury lawyers and their parasitic, opportunistic lawsuits that have, during the past few decades, managed to take most of the challenge and practically all of the fun out of jungle gyms and slides.

“Even if children do suffer fewer physical injuries — and the evidence for that is debatable,” the Times article reports, “the critics say that [newer, supposedly safer] playgrounds may stunt emotional development, leaving children with anxieties and fears that are ultimately worse than a broken bone.”

Add stunted emotional development to a well-documented epidemic of childhood obesity, and the real danger of trial lawyers becomes that much more apparent.  Our world cannot possibly be risk-proofed entirely, no matter how many lawsuits we taxpayers and consumers are forced to pay for.  So isn’t it about time that lawmakers and judges, in New York and elsewhere, stand up to the litigation industry by insisting that common sense be a mandatory element of our public policies?