Quinn to sign safety law inspired by Vernon Hills boy

Nearly eight years after a Vernon Hills boy died after a soccer goal fell on him, Illinois will enact measures designed to protect other players from facing the same danger.

Gov. Pat Quinn is scheduled Tuesday to sign into law the Movable Soccer Goals Safety Act, better known as “Zach’s Law,” a two-pronged piece of legislation requiring soccer organizations and park districts to document safety measures and eventually phase out goals that are not tip-resistant.

Quinn, joined by the family of Zach Tran and local state legislators who sponsored the measure, will sign the legislation at the Waukegan Sports Park in Waukegan.

Zach, a first-grader at Hawthorn Option School, died Oct. 1, 2003, after a 180-pound soccer goal fell on him during a team practice at Century Park in Vernon Hills.

Nearly two years later, his mother, Michelle, and father, Jayson, unveiled Anchored for Safety, a national campaign to protect others and improve soccer goal safety awareness.

According to the organization’s website, 36 deaths and 56 injuries related to soccer goals were documented between 1979 to early 2011, with potentially hundreds of other incidents not reported.

Jayson Tran noted that a 12-year-old boy died in Wales last Friday after a goal post fell on him.

“Part of this effort is to have legislation that requires soccer goals to be properly anchored as well as requiring new soccer goals to be tip-resistant,” he said Monday. “We’ve been able to help get similar legislation passed in Wisconsin as well as Arkansas. We now have one in our own state of Illinois.”

Effectively immediately, the law requires organizations such as park districts, soccer clubs and others to create a soccer goal safety and education policy, said state Rep. Carol Sente of Vernon Hills, who sponsored the measure in the state House.

It also imposes a ban in one year on the manufacture or sale of a movable goal that is not tip-resistant.

“When I look at a tragedy like this and what the family went through and what other families went through ... I definitely think this will make a difference,” Sente said. “This is a step in closure, I’m sure, for the family. Their mission is to prevent this from happening to another child.”

Jayson Tran said local park districts and soccer organizations have implemented procedures and policies to check goals before games and practices but that isn’t always the case outside the immediate area.

“We’re trying to get a wider reach — here’s a danger we know about. Let’s do it,” he said.

Tran’s organization is working toward national laws similar to the state measures passed so far.

He said the law won’t make all soccer goals safe overnight.

“It’s actually the beginning for us. There’s a lot of work left,” he said. “It’s a great start here.”