Quinn signs ‘Zach’s Law’ to promote soccer goal safety
BY DAN MORAN Sun-Times Media dmoran@stmedianetwork.com August 2, 2011 12:58PM
Michelle Tran, with her husband, Jayson, talks about Zach’s Law, named for her 6-year-old son, who was killed when a soccer goal fell on him. | Michelle LaVigne~Sun-Times Media
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Updated: November 2, 2011 6:05PM
Moments after Gov. Pat Quinn signed legislation Tuesday aimed at preventing movable soccer goals from tipping over and causing death or injury, an emotional Michelle Tran, the mother of a Vernon Hills boy killed eight years ago by a falling goal, pulled him aside to offer a final thanks.
Quinn put an arm around her shoulder and remarked that the law was an example of democracy in action. He shared a similar sentiment with the crowd gathered at the Waukegan SportsPark, praising the Tran family for its dedication toward turning a tragedy into “an educational mission.”
“I think that the tragedy that occurred was a wake-up call that we have to protect our children and make sure there’s safety in recreational activities,” Quinn said, adding that the Trans provided an example of what happens when “thoughtful, committed people band together, not for profit, but for a cause they believe in.”
In October 2003, 6-year-old Zach Tran, a first-grader at Hawthorn Option School, died of head injuries suffered when an 18-foot-by-6-foot, 186-pound soccer goal toppled and struck him from behind while he was practicing with his greater Libertyville Soccer Association team.
A lawsuit against the association claimed the goal was not anchored into the ground by stakes and had no counterbalance.
The Tran family subsequently formed Anchored for Safety, a non-profit group promoting soccer-goal safety and pushing for legislation requiring goals to be properly secured and monitored.
The group’s Web site, anchoredforsafety.org, lists 36 deaths and 56 injuries related to moveable soccer goals in the U.S. between 1979 and 2011. Zach Tran’s death was one of four incidents in Illinois, including a 1998 accident that left a 9-year-old Deerfield boy with serious facial injuries.
Michelle Tran told the SportsPark gathering that since the “tragic and very preventable accident” that took her son, nine more deaths have been attributed to toppling soccer goals, including one just last week.
“We must anchor them and check them and make sure they stay anchored,” said Tran, adding that it is “important and wonderful that (the new law) can help other people.”
The Movable Soccer Goal Safety Act — now known as Zach’s Law — requires “any organization that sets up, moves, or stores a movable soccer goal to follow all applicable guidelines for anchoring, securing, and counterweighting (the) goal,” as detailed by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
In addition, starting this month, the measure will ban the manufacture or sale of movable soccer goals that are not tip-resistant.
Waukegan Park District officials distributed a “soccer goal safety and education policy” enacted by the law, which requires districts to install and secure goals prior to the commencement of each soccer season, and routinely inspect all moveable goals.
At the end of soccer seasons, districts must either remove and store moveable goals or secure and lock them in specified manners, including face-to-face. Only park employees are allowed to move a goal owned and installed by the district.
In attendance for Tuesday’s bill signing were state Rep. Carol Sente, D-Vernon Hills, and state Sen. Terry Link, D-Waukegan, who sponsored the legislation. Link said he wished the Illinois law, which comes on the heels of similar measures in Arkansas and Wisconsin, hadn’t taken so long to become reality.
“This is a special type of legislation because it has a personal meaning to it,” Link said. “When I saw the Trans this morning, I apologized to them for taking so long. Finally, we can say to Zach that we got it done.”
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