Soccer goal safety bill advances

A Virginia Senate committee on Thursday advanced a bill intended to make soccer goals safer after a Virginia mother tearfully recalled how one fell on her 10-year-old son and killed him.

Mary Ellias of Stephens City described the accident that took the life of her son, Hayden, in 2007 while he played goalie in Frederick County. She called on the Senate Committee on Education and Health to pass a bill requiring that organizations that own or control moveable soccer goals to establish policies to ensure that they are properly anchored.

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The bill, sponsored by Sen. Jill Holtzman Vogel (R-Fauquier), also would prohibit the sale of movable soccer goals that are not tip-resistant beginning July 1, 2014.

Vogel testified that it takes just 20 pounds of pressure to tip over a 400-pound goal that is not properly anchored. She brought a similar bill last year that died before a different committee.