New Ontario law named for teen killed by a soccer net requires them to be secured
CTV
The father of a 15-year-old Ontario boy who was killed by a 200-pound soccer net says he is honoured that a new provincial law is named for his son, though he would trade everything to be oblivious to the dangers of such nets and have his son back.
The father of a 15-year-old Ontario boy who was killed by a 200-pound soccer net says he is honoured that a new provincial law is named for his son, though he would trade everything to be oblivious to the dangers of such nets and have his son back.
Garrett Mills, from Napanee, Ont., was playing in a park with his girlfriend and his best friend on May 12, 2017, hanging off the crossbar of an unanchored soccer net and doing chin-ups, when the structure fell on top of him and killed him.
Garrett's Legacy Act, which received royal assent last week, establishes requirements for safe usage of movable soccer goals that are used by members of the public.
Shortly before his death, Garrett had out of the blue asked his father what a legacy was.
"Once we had explained it to him, he paused for a moment and really contemplated that for a moment and then said, 'When I go, I want to leave a legacy,'" his father Dave Mills says.
"Four days later, he was gone."
Movable soccer goals have been blamed for more than 40 deaths across North America, mostly of children, said Ric Bresee, the Progressive Conservative member of provincial parliament for Hastings-Lennox and Addington who proposed the legislation as a private member's bill.
