Tire swing slams into man's face, kills him

(NEWSER) – It was supposed to be a fun day at a New York City playground for Aleim Perkins and his 6-year-old niece, Leela. But their together time ended in tragedy Monday afternoon when the 39-year-old pushed an empty tire swing and it came flying back at him, smashing into his face and killing him.

The New York Post notes that the 25-pound tire swing at Tompkins Square Park isn't constructed of more giving rubber but of ethyl vinyl acetate (the material used on the bottom of soccer cleats). Witnesses say Perkins was pushing it "aggressively." And while he reportedly "crouched to get out of the way ... it was going too fast," a 12-year-old witness to the freak accident tells the Post.

"It hit him on the left cheek. He just plopped down." It was enough of a hit to leave Perkins sprawled on the ground, unconscious and bleeding from the mouth. "The guy got his fillings knocked out," Ori Carino, a 32-year-old local resident who tried to help Perkins, tells DNAInfo.

Carino says a group of moms tried to console Perkins' extremely upset young niece. A nanny who was at the park says that before the accident, Perkins was pushing some older children on the swing "like crazy"; they ultimately got off, and he kept pushing it.

Perkins was rushed to a nearby hospital and pronounced DOA. The Parks Department extended its sympathies to Perkins' family, the Post notes, but it wouldn't verify how many of these tire swings the park has or if they'd be removed. (A Washington state school district got rid of its playground's "hazardous" swings.)

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/story/news/weird/2014/12/18/tire-swing-kills-him/20622729/

Call me mr safety but doesn't a 25lbs hard plastic weight on the end of a long chain sound like a bad idea?

I remember, as kids, my friends and I pushing that kind of swing aggressively as well to make it fly high just for the fun of it . Wow...never thought that it can become a killer when pushed too hard.

The sad part of this story is that parks went away from a traditional rubber tire swings to these hard plastic swings for safety reasons. At least that is what we were told when the park near our house removed theirs and replaced it with basically a hard plastic donut that looked like the rubber tire they had replaced. I doubt a rubber tire swing would have killed the guy. I've got to guess that the company who made the swing is waiting for the lawsuit and probably realized their not going to be selling to many of these swings anymore.

We have a park with a tire swing but I am not sure made it made of .The park is in another town close by and we had not been there for awhile.

jonnyghost said:

Call me mr safety but doesn't a 25lbs hard plastic weight on the end of a long chain sound like a bad idea?

Click to expand...

Needs to be made of steel now days as everything gets vandalized.