Parents Emphasize Dangers Of Soccer Goals
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WBBM/CBS) -- The parents of a little boy killed by a falling soccer goal are determined to see that it never happens to another child.
As WBBM Newsradio 780's Dave Dahl reports, Michelle Tran of Vernon Hills is the mother of a 6-year-old boy who died in 2003.
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"We're here on behalf of our son, Zack, who was killed during soccer practice when a heavy metal goal fell on him, and we don't know how that goal fell – whether it was a gust of wind or a child was leaning on it – but the unstable, unanchored, 180-pound goal came crashing down on him, striking him and stealing his life," Tran said.
Tran spoke for a bill that would require portable soccer goals to be anchored, and ones manufactured or sold in Illinois to be tip-resistant.
The bill, which the boy's parents call Zack's Bill, has passed a house committee.
Zack was a first-grader at Hawthorn Option School in Vernon Hills when he was killed on Oct. 1, 2003. The soccer goal safety awareness Web site "Anchored for Safety" said he was pronounced dead at an area hospital less than an hour after the 18-foot-by-6-foot, 186-pound goal hit him in the back of the head.
The soccer goal was supposed to be anchored with four metal stakes, but they had never been put in place, the Web site said.
