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7-year-old girl seriously injured by school goalpost collapse

13 Comments

Police said Tuesday that a 7-year-old girl was seriously injured after handball goalposts fell on her.

The incident occurred at the school grounds of Ushigome Daini Junior High School in Shinjuku at around 2:30 p.m. on Monday, TBS reported.

According to police, the girl had come to the school to cheer on a local youth soccer team who were playing a match. While the game progressed, the girl started playing on the handball goalposts. It is believed the soccer team coach and another child were with her at the time of the accident, TBS reported.

The goalposts are about two meters tall, three meters wide and weigh around 160 kg. Police say the girl sustained a fractured skull and has yet to regain consciousness following the accident. An investigation is underway to establish the cause of the accident, police said.

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13 Comments
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Scary! Hopefully she will make full recovery!

3 ( +4 / -1 )

An investigation is underway to establish the cause of the accident, police said

Yeah, I wonder how many other goal posts were installed by the same company and have the same dangers?

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

@Disillusioned The company could have nothign to do with it. It all depends when it was installed maybe its like 10 years old and was unsafe because of the time factor.

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

@Disillusioned The company could have nothign to do with it. It all depends when it was installed maybe its like 10 years old and was unsafe because of the time factor.

This is a 160 kilo steel goal post and should not fall over even after fifty years if it was installed properly. There are strict regulations in regards to the height of a structure and the depth of the footings supporting it. Obviously, this structure did not have the required footings for the weight and height of the structure cos if it did, it would still be standing and this little girl would not be in hospital with a fractured skull.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

What's up with all these accidents involving little girls? I hope she will be okay. Geez. Safety standards at playgrounds/sportsgrounds gotta be looked after and enforced.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Yeah, I wonder how many other goal posts were installed by the same company and have the same dangers?

Typically HANDBALL goals, they are NOT goal posts btw, they are smaller versions of a soccer goal to give you the idea, and are relatively portable.

There is information lacking here too.

I hope that she recovers!

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Yubaru - possibly it is lost in translation, but it clearly states the goal posts collapsed, not fell over.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Handball goals are 3x2 meters, but they are usually portable: I doubt they were installed. 160kg seems more of the weight of a soccer goal. Usually people like to swing on these things, not realizing that they can fall over. However I doubt a 7-year old carries enough weight to move it on her own. This seems more like an episode of kids engaging in dangerous play with onlookers afraid to tell them to stop.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Yubaru - possibly it is lost in translation, but it clearly states the goal posts collapsed, not fell over.

There are no "goal posts" used in handball. It's a framed net, and like Todd Cooper mentioned as well, and through experience too, I doubt they were "installed".

Did you read the very first line of the article that clearly states that the posts fell on her?

Police said Tuesday that a 7-year-old girl was seriously injured after handball goalposts fell on her.

Like Todd also mentioned, and also from experience, kids like to swing on them, and 160 kg does sound like a soccer goal and not a handball one.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Missing from the article is why the girl was allowed to climb on a device not designed for climbing when adults were standing right there.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Usually these things have a warning that anchors must be used at all times on portable/moveable ones or they can fall over and cause injury. So was someone not doing their job.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

H&S compliance in Japan? You must be kidding if you think anyone takes it seriously.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

Usually these things have a warning that anchors must be used at all times on portable/moveable ones or they can fall over and cause injury. So was someone not doing their job.

Nothing personal here, but you don't happen to live in Japan do you? I ask that because in all my years of raising my kids, and being around schools and seeing both soccer goals and handball goals, and driving a HS handball team around to practice and games, and seeing soccer goals on countless numbers of JHS and HS grounds, I have NEVER seen, never, a warning sign on either stating that anchors must be used.

In fact, typically speaking here, handball is played indoors, usually in a gym, and outside one's are for practice only, and believe me when I say that here in Okinawa handball is a MAJOR sport, in many ES, JHS, and HS too. In fact there are JHS and HS here that have won the "All Japan" tournaments on a number of occasions.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

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