Orihuela, September 8, 2025 — What should have been a carefree evening at the park turned into a frightening ordeal for Lucía and her three-year-old son.
On August 19, little T.R.B. was playing in the children’s area on Avenida Doctor Gómez Pardo Ródenas, opposite Los Huertos, when he tripped on a raised rubber tile. Instead of cushioning his fall, the hardened, uneven surface sent him tumbling forward, splitting open his chin.
“He was crying, there was so much blood, and I didn’t even have tissues,” Lucía recalled. Another mother quickly handed her a nappy, which she pressed to the wound until her husband rushed the boy to the Álvarez de la Riva health centre. Doctors glued the cut closed and covered it with a patch. Still, the wound later became infected — a struggle to manage on a child so young.
Shaken by the experience, Lucía went to the Local Police the next day to file a report. With legal advice, she is now preparing to submit a formal complaint to Orihuela’s City Council and says she will take the matter to court if necessary. “Of course, accidents happen, even in safe places,” she admitted, “but what angers me is the state of these parks. They’re falling apart.”
Her frustration resonates with many local families. Parents’ groups have long complained that Orihuela’s playgrounds — apart from a few recently renovated ones — are unsafe, neglected, and in urgent need of maintenance. In fact, just last year, parents collected over 1,000 signatures and even staged a protest demanding action.
While the city has invested in upgrading some playgrounds — more than 20 have been renovated in the past two years, with another 30 scheduled for improvement — many residents feel the changes aren’t happening fast enough. “Children deserve safe places to play, not broken equipment and dangerous surfaces,” Lucía said.
The issue is not new. In 2023, a four-year-old girl suffered abrasions and facial injuries in another Orihuela park, also due to deteriorating rubber flooring.
For Lucía, speaking out is about more than her own child’s accident. She wants her son’s story to spark change. “I don’t want another family to go through what we did,” she said. “Playgrounds are meant to bring joy, not fear.”
