A lawyer representing the family of the five-year-old girl killed by a falling soccer goal in Watson Lake said today they are preparing a lawsuit that will name the Yukon government.

James Tucker is representing the family of Jaedyn Amann, who died July 4 when she was struck on the head by a soccer goal at Watson Lake Secondary School.

"Nothing can eliminate the tragedy this family has suffered, but we will be taking steps to recover damages for them for their losses,” Tucker told the Star today.

The lawsuit has not been written yet, but will name the government and be based on both negligence and current legislation in the Yukon, he said.

In a report released Thursday, the territory's chief coroner says the goal that killed the youngster was intended for indoor use, was rusty and missing screws, and was not anchored to the ground.

In tests, "the net collapsed easily by an adult applying the pressure of just one finger to the soccer goal,” said a report released by coroner Kirsten Macdonald.

Amann died while playing with three friends aged two, three and five.

It was about 4 p.m., and two adults, were sitting on a bench about 25 metres away.

According to Macdonald's report, the three-year-old was "observed touching or shaking a side support strut of the soccer goal. The force of the three-year-old caused the goal to collapse and fall to the ground.”

Amann, who had been crawling in the grass near the goal, was struck on the head.

She was rushed to Watson Lake Hospital but died a few hours later.

The coroner's report says she died from blunt force head injuries, and classifies her death as accidental.

The coroner made seven recommendations surrounding the safety of soccer goals. They include a call to introduce legislation in the Yukon regarding safety, standards, anchoring and safe storage practices.

"Soccer goals which are not properly anchored or counter-balanced pose a significant, documented and unnecessary hazard,” Macdonald concludes.

"The type of soccer goal involved in the death of Jaedyn Amann was a foldable or ‘collapsable' soccer goal which are intended for indoor use and made to be collapsible for storage purposes.

"The goal was ill-designed to present-day standards. The goal, likely constructed sometime in the 1980s is designed so that the majority of the weight rests on the front vertical posts. The design of this goal made the likelihood of tipping over a very real hazard.”

Other recommendations include safety inspections on a regular basis; a policy for tracking complaints about equipment; and permanently attaching warning labels and manufacturer's labels to the equipment.

The coroner points out that,while there were no standards for goals at the time this one was manufactured, since that era, safety standards have been developed for these types of goals.

"There were no manufacturer or after-market warning labels on the soccer goal advising of the dangers associated with unanchored goals and there is an absence of policy and/or legislation in Yukon governing the use, maintenance and safe anchoring practices of soccer goals.”

The investigation found no evidence that the goal, which was one of two on the field and weighed 80 kilograms, was anchored in any way.

"At one point, someone had tried to anchor one of the soccer goals using a 4x4 piece of lumber with a large spike set in the ground,” the report reads.

"In spring of 2012, this piece of lumber was observed to be out of the ground, flipped upwards with the spike sticking up in the air. This was deemed to pose safety concerns and was removed from the field.”

Records about the goal's history were hard to come by.

Financial records prior to 2005 for items worth less than $1,000 had already been destroyed according to government policy.

The manufacturing company could not be located.

"There is no written policy or legislation specifically with regard to soccer goals in Yukon. Contracts for field maintenance do not contain any language about soccer goals. There is no regular maintenance schedule for soccer goals,” Macdonald's report says.

"In general, soccer goals are maintained in the same manner as all school assets in Yukon; that is, when damage is observed, it is repaired. No reviews are conducted by Government of Yukon specifically with regards to safety information or recalls of soccer goals.”

There are no confirmed prior injuries related to the soccer goals in Watson Lake and there is no record of complaints about the goals, the report says.

Valerie Royle, the deputy minister of education, said Thursday afternoon she hopes some form of new legislation or regulations will be in place by the next soccer season.

There will be a number consultations with members of the public and groups like the Yukon Soccer Association before then, she told the Star.

"Should it be a new act? Should it be regulations under existing legislation? Or should there be some type of policy? We don't know what the right answer is.

"There's no legislation like this in Canada.”

The Department of Education did its own investigation and co-operated with the coroner and the RCMP, Royle said, meaning there were no surprises in the coroner's findings.

"This goal has been out there for almost 30 years, and over time, I think, it just became a fixture that was there,” Royle said.

"As the coroner documented, there are no written records of complaints, or problems. But clearly, this soccer goal that killed Jaedyn on July 4th was not meant to be outdoors. It's not surprising that it was rusted; it's not surprising that it wasn't in great condition.”

Royle said the department has policies for inspecting other school equipment.

"The things that are indoors are regularly inspected and so are the big toys, the playground equipment,” she said.

"I think that is an area that we need to make sure that we follow the recommendations of the coroner and get this one covered off as well.”

As for why the soccer goals did not fall under the same umbrella as the other equipment, when it came to inspections, Royle did not have an answer.

"What do you say to that? This is a little girl who died, and there's nothing I can say that's going to bring her back.

"What we need to do is look forward and say, ‘how do we put this in place to never happen again?” she said.

"What we're focusing on is how are we going to fix this in the future to make sure what we have is safe, and from (the Department of) Education's perspective, yes, we're looking at soccer nets, but we're also looking broader, like what else is there?”

There have been three confirmed deaths in Canada due to soccer goals and at least 21 in the United States between 1979 and 1994.