PHOENIX -- An 8-year-old boy has died of injuries suffered when a goal post fell on top of him at the South Mountain YMCA in Phoenix.

Gabriel Mendoza died at St. Joseph's Hospital within hours of the accident Thursday.

Investigators said Mendoza was playing goalie and grabbed the overhead bar to swing from it when it came crashing down. The impact killed him.

He was transported to the hospital where he died at about 6:30 p.m.

Mendoza was a second grader at nearby Amy Houston Academy, a school for children with special needs.

The boy's parents were not at the soccer match at the time of the accident but his grandmother saw the whole thing.

"I'm concerned about how the goal was actually aligned with the ground," said one person at the facility.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has said for years soccer goals should be anchored to the ground. Officials there said goals tipping over have killed more than two-dozen people in the last 30 years.

In March, 1999, CPSC and the soccer goal industry helped develop a new safety standard that will reduce the risk of soccer goal tip-over.

The "Provisional Safety Standard and Performance Specification for Soccer Goals" requires that movable soccer goals, except very light-weight goals, not tip over when the goal is weighted in a downward or horizontal direction.

The standard also specifies warning labels that must be attached to the goal, such as: "Warning: Always anchor goal. Unsecured goal can fall over causing serious injury or death."

YMCA Executive Director Robin Jordan said to the best of her knowledge, the goal posts in Thursday's accident were not anchored to the ground.

CPSC said most of the deaths and injuries occurred with unanchored homemade goals including those assembled by high school shop classes and community businesses. The commission said people were killed when they climbed on the soccer goal or while attempting to do chin-ups, pulling the goal down.

In a May, 1999 news release, the commission urged that all goals, whether homemade or manufactured, should be properly secured to the ground to avoid injuries or deaths associated with tip-over.

Medoza was part of a YMCA program called "Activate America" which organized the game.

Officials at the South Mountain YMCA, near Central Avenue and Baseline Road, said they were providing free counseling for employees and contacting all the children who might need counseling.

The YMCA has offered to pay some of the boy's funeral expenses.

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