 Soccer net. (Shutterstock)
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The Yukon government should take steps to ensure collapsible soccer goal posts in the territory are properly maintained, the coroner recommended in a report into the death of a five-year-old girl who died this summer when a goal fell on her.
On July 4, two mothers and their four small children met for a play date on the soccer field of the high school in Watson Lake, Yukon. The children were playing around one of the field's two soccer goals when one of them, aged three, shook one of the side support struts of the goal, causing it to collapse and fall.
Three of the children escaped uninjured, but Jaedyn Amann, 5, was hit on the head. She was rushed to hospital, where she was pronounced dead that night.
The collapsible soccer goal was made of metal and weighed about 176 lbs. It was six-foot-six by 10 feet tall, the coroner's report found.
The soccer goal belonged to the Yukon government and was likely purchased in the 1980s, the report said. The goal was "in poor condition with evidence of rusting at the moving joints." There were no safety warnings on the goal and it was easily toppled with minimal force, the report found. The goals were not anchored to the ground.
The coroner recommended that the Yukon government educate the public about soccer goal safety, attach permanent warnings to soccer goals, maintain the goals safely and introduce legislation to ensure safe anchoring and storage practices.
