Sep 30, 2014 in News Personal Injury

Personal Injury: Girl dies after being pinned underneath a soccer goal post

[caption id="attachment_6434" align="alignright" width="300"] (Photo credit: Andy Elck/Flickr)[/caption] Summer is time to play outdoors in parks and with the recent World Cup craze, you'll probably see more kids kicking around soccer balls. But one thing you don't expect is the danger some goal posts pose to children. In late July, a 15-year-old girl was killed when a soccer net fell and trapped her underneath. The friend she was playing with was unable to lift the net up and called 911, but the girl died at the hospital. The park where the incident happened is owned by the Portuguese Cultural Centre and managed and maintained by the Town of Bradford West Gwillimbury leisure services, according to the Toronto Sun. While the area has locked gates and a "No Trespassing" sign, an employee of the centre told the Toronto Sun that they've had issues with trespassing. The incident could be classified as a freak accident, but there are other similar situations that have happened across North America. In 2012, a five-year-old girl was killed in the Yukon when a soccer net on school grounds fell over and struck her on the head. She was playing with her friends and her parents were nearby when the incident occurred. Since the incident, the Yukon government removed all moveable soccer nets from school grounds across the province while they looked into potential safety issues, according to CBC News. "It's been recognized for a long period of time that goal posts that are improperly anchored can cause injury and in fact there are several recorded fatalities from falling goal posts," Charles Tator, a Toronto-based neurosurgeon and founder of Think First Canada, a brain and spinal cord prevention agency, told CBC News. Soccer goals are typically made out of metal and they can weigh between 150 to 500 pounds. Across North America, there have been 39 deaths and 56 injured children, including head injuries, spine injuries and facial injuries, related to falling soccer goal nets between 1979 to 2014, according to Anchored for Safety, a US-based non-profit created by a family who lost their son to a similar incident. In Canada, soccer is the most popular team sport played with 767,000 children between the ages of three to 17 playing organized soccer, according to the Canada Youth Sports Report. It's the top team sport for all regions across Canada and also for both boys and girls of different age groups. It's assumed to be a safer sport, but there's new research discovering the danger of concussions to children If you've suffered from a spinal cord or a head injury, your lifestyle will have changed dramatically. Neinstein Personal Injury Lawyers is here for you and we have been handling all types of injuries for over 40 years. We understand the impacts they can have on you and we can help fight your case. Call us at 416-920-4242. Set up a free consultation and come chat with us.