Oklahoma City to Install New, Safer Guardrails Once Approved
Samuel KozlowskiA meeting held with the Mayor’s Committee on Disability Concerns, Wednesday, discussed disability-assisted infrastructure.
“The disability community- people don’t think about us. We’re an afterthought,” said mobility specialist and vice chair of the Mayor’s Committee on Disability Concerns, Adam Lane.
Oklahoma City will introduce new guard rails to prevent people, specifically children from falling or crawling through tight spaces.
Current guardrails around water and drainage pipes are shorter in height, easily allowing for people to climb over.
Unlike current rails, new ones will be 48 inches in height and have smaller crevices between each rail.
Guardrails are meant to protect people from squeezing through crevices, however, rails with gaps larger than 4-inches pose a threat to small children.
More than 6,000 children are injured each year falling through windows or guardrails in the United States, according to the Journal of the National Academy of Forensic Engineers 2008 volume.