Stop these needless deaths!

Another tragic death of an innocent child as he played the game he loved means we must act to ensure this NEVER happens again.

The seven-year-old was killed after a set of mobile goalposts collapsed on top of him, bring back horrific memories for a Witham mum.

The tragic death of the youngster has prompted Brenda Smith to renew her safety campaign, following her own heart-break eight years ago.

Mrs Smith, of Tees Close, is urging new sports minister Kate Hoey to take action following the death last week of the youngster at a football coaching session in Yorkshire.

In 1991 Mrs Smith's 11-year-old son Jonathan was killed when a set of unsecured goalposts toppled on him, crushing his heart.

Every year since Jonathan's death an average of one child a year has been killed in a similar, preventable, way. Many more have been injured.

Now Mrs Smith is urging the Government to tighten existing legislation to ensure that all goalposts are firmly anchored to the ground, putting an end to these needless deaths.

Mrs Smith said: "Each death I hear about makes me feel worse than the last. Who will listen? When will there ever be an end to it?"

She is stepping up her campaign after the latest tragedy when a seven-year-old boy died in West Yorkshire when apparently unsecured goalposts fell on his head.

Although the Football Association have introduced guidelines to clubs over the pegging of portable goalposts, Mrs Smith insists that what is needed is legislation to make it compulsory.

She said: "All these deaths are needless and there seems no end to it. People do not realise how heavy these goalposts are."

Now Braintree's Labour MP Alan Hurst has backed the fight; he said: "I definitely support the campaign because the facts need to come out, we need to find out what the main cause is."

Mr Hurst, who is due to meet with Mrs Smith as soon as possible, said he is to write to Sports Minister Kate Hoey in order to try and further the cause.

He believes it would be possible to toughen up existing standards about the sale and use of mobile goalposts. It could be a quick and simple way to achieve our aim.

Four years ago Mrs Smith appealed through This Is Essex partner the Gazette following the death of a 13-year-old schoolboy from Blackburn. The boy, like Jonathan, had been swinging on the goalposts and suffered a fractured skull when they collapsed.

A year after Jonathan's death Esther Rantzen highlighted the campaign on her show That's Life, and hundreds of people responded at the time.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.