Deadly Soccer Posts May Soon Get Safer

Makers of soccer equipment are nearing agreement on standards to prevent goal frames from tipping over and crushing children who climb on them, the chairman of an industry work group said Tuesday.

Soccer goal tipovers have caused at least 22 deaths and hundreds of serious injuries since 1979, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, which issued safety guidelines in 1995.

Those guidelines are the basis for voluntary manufacturing standards that the work group is preparing for possible adoption by the end of the year, said Dan Shaw, the group’s leader.

The U.S. Soccer Federation already requires portable goals to be anchored or weighted down during games, spokesman Jim Froslid said. But many of the accidents occurred when no game was taking place, according to safety commission documents.

The push for standards is driven by mounting injuries and deaths from equipment used by more than 12 million U.S. children.