Goal Posts To Go After Collapse At Colorado Rugby Field

TIMNATH, Colo. (AP) -- Officials in Timnath don't want anyone else playing rugby on the field where a teen player collapsed and later died.

Town councilors voted Tuesday to remove the field's goal posts. The Fort Collins Coloradoan reported the move was partly motivated by liability concerns and slow emergency response times.

The small but growing northern Colorado town only has a volunteer firefighting station that's usually unstaffed. It took medics 10 minutes to reach 17-year-old Matthew Hammerdorfer when he collapsed March 6.

He died of heart attack caused by a heart defect.

Interim town manager Sherri Wagner said the league that uses the field never signed an insurance waiver to use it. She said officials didn't even know a game was happening the day the teen collapsed.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)