CHICAGO -- Time stood still for many in the Vernon Hills soccer community on Oct. 1, 2003. That was that day that a 6-year-old boy was caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Target 5's Lisa Parker reported on Wednesday that Zach Tran was outside on that day, doing what many children in the Chicago area do-- he was at practice as part of a youth soccer league. Before practice even got under way, an unanchored goal post on the park district field toppled and hit him on the head. He died that day, Parker reported.

FeedRoom

Report: The Toughest Loss

"He just always wanted to be moving," Zach's mother, Michelle, said. "We said he had two speeds -- full speed or no speed."

It's the kind of accident that has happened many times before in this country, Parker reported, and it is one that can be easily prevented.

"Had I even had an inkling that a goal is a dangerous thing, I would have been very vigilant about that," Michelle Tran said.

A demonstration by the Lake County coroner's office showed how little force it took -- just a shove -- to send the 180-pound frame crashing to the ground.

"We never imagined that soccer would be this -- [that] something like this could happen," said Zach's father, Jayson. "It was just unbelievable for us."

Zach Tran's story is one that some would be tempted to call a freak accident, Parker reported. But the same forces in motion that day in Vernon Hills -- an unanchored goal post hovering over little soccer players -- have happened before. For the people keeping track of this problem, Zach Tran is incident No. 76. A Web site dedicated to the memory of another little boy killed by a goal post lists the cases of children killed in such accidents.

Sometimes, children aren't killed in such accidents, but they are severely injured.

Sloane Kodroff, a 15-year-old from Glenview, suffered a broken jaw and teeth after a soccer goal post fell on his face.

"It just starting tipping and I tried to jump off, but it just came with me and landed on my face," he said.

Kodroff's mother, Rhona, said adults need to make sure every piece of equipment on the soccer field is safe for the players.

"You wouldn't send your child out to play with a loaded gun," she said. "And unless you make sure that these cages are secure, you might as well be doing that because these things are lethal."

If part of the problem is the front-heavy design of goal posts, Parker reported, the other part is human -- people who move goals and forget to put the anchors back in. Officials from the Illinois Soccer Referee Committee said they would like more goals to be anchored.

Goal post makers say they are working on improved designs, such as tip-resistant goals. But nothing will ever replace the simplest solution, Parker reported: parents, coaches, anyone on the field checking if the goal is anchored.

Jayson Tran said he knows his son was not the first to die or be injured by a falling soccer goal post, but he and his wife want him to be the last.

"There's nothing we can do to bring our little boy back, nothing," Michelle Tran said. "But we can do something for him that prevents this happening to anybody else."

Three weeks ago in California, it did happen again, Parker reported. A seventh-grade boy out at recess was killed by an unanchored goal after he and his friends were playing on it.