TAMPA, FL - The small park maintained by the Palmetto Point Civic Association isn't particularly large or famous, just a gathering spot for local kids.

But after a swing set collapsed Sunday afternoon and left a 2-year-old girl with severe brain damage, the Manatee County park has become the focus of new concerns about the safety of private playgrounds that are open to the public.

Unlike 17 other states, Florida does not require regular safety inspections of private playgrounds to make sure they meet standards set by national organizations.

That means hundreds of local playgrounds run by neighborhood associations, churches and even day cares are not required to have certified inspections proving they are safe for kids, said Scott Burton, a licensed playground safety expert and the president of the St. Petersburg company Safety Play.

Read more about the accident and about unregulated parks in Florida here .

Other tidbits from the article:

• A playground safety expert says he has inspected hundreds of playgrounds and found safety flaws in each one: a lack of padding under swings, for example, or equipment that was improperly assembled.
• Inspections vary depending on who runs the playground.
• It is unclear how many private playgrounds exist locally or nationally, officals said. Pinellas, Hillsborough and Manatee counties neither track nor monitor private playgrounds open to the public. For parents, that means having to guess whether parks are safe.
• Other states have laws requiring private playgrounds meant for public use to comply with national safety standards established by organizations such as the Consumer Product Safety Commission and American Society for Testing and Materials.
• You can assess your own local playground using a downloadable "report card" from the National Program for Playground Safety.