YOKOHAMA (Kyodo) The Yokohama District Court ordered the city of Fujisawa, Kanagawa Prefecture, and a Tokyo-based manufacturer of swings on Wednesday to pay 1.23 million yen in damages to a girl whose leg was broken while playing on one of the swings and to her mother.
Saki Okabe, 13, and her mother, Akemi, 38, from Fujisawa, filed a 4.1 million yen suit in May 1999 against Uesaka Tekkosho K.K. in Tokyo and the city of Fujisawa, claiming the injury the girl suffered was due to a structural defect in the multiseat swing.
The ruling is the first ordering a manufacturer to pay damages for one of the numerous accidents involving multiseat swings, according to a citizen group keeping track of such lawsuits.
Presiding Judge Norio Nishimura said the swing "had a risky structure, with the gap between the bottom of the swing and the ground of only 22 cm. It could be easily predicted that a child falling down could get caught in between."
The Fujisawa Municipal Government, which installed the swing, "did not take any measures, including inspecting the swings, even after numerous reports came in of similar accidents at various places," the judge said.
According to the court, the girl, along with a friend, was pushing a swing occupied by another friend in a park when she suffered the injury in October 1997. Pulled by the force of the swing, she fell and got her right leg trapped between the bottom of the swing and the ground, resulting in a fracture.
In the five years up to March 31, accidents involving multiseat swings in parks and kindergartens have resulted in two deaths and more than 140 cases of serious injury, according to the government.