Girl dies after digging hole in Florida Beach, authorities say

A 7-year-old girl died Tuesday after the hole she was digging with her brother on a Florida beach collapsed, burying the couple in sand, authorities said — one of the few cases in which such an episode has occurred every year turns out to be fatal. the United States.

The girl, Sloan Mattingly, was vacationing with her family from Indiana in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, a coastal town about 30 miles (48 kilometers) north of Miami, and playing in the sand with her 9-year-old brother Maddox. when they became trapped Tuesday afternoon, the Broward County Sheriff's Office said in a statement.

In a 911 call from the Sheriff's Office, beachgoers can be heard screaming as a breathless woman, describing herself as a registered nurse, tells the operator that “there's a little girl buried in the sand.” The girl's father had called for help and people tried to dig her out, the woman said. She says she couldn't see any part of the girl's body. “My mom yells, 'My daughter is in there,'” she says.

Film material appeared to show other beachgoers crowded around the sand hole and tried to dig the girl out before rescuers arrived. Other 911 callers sounded distressed as they described the frantic scene.

Sandra King, a spokeswoman for Pompano Beach Fire Rescue, said rescuers were called to the beach around 3:15 p.m. and found several adults frantically trying to dig the two children out of the hole, which was about three to five feet deep. with a width of four to five meters. The boy was buried up to his chest and the girl was completely covered in sand, she said. Rescuers secured the edges of the hole to prevent it from collapsing further and managed to get them both out.

Rescuers attempted to revive the girl, who had no pulse, as they took her to a hospital, where she was later pronounced dead, according to the sheriff's office. The boy was unharmed, Ms King said. “The scene was very, very traumatic and the parents were understandably absolutely hysterical,” she said. “They are there to enjoy a day at the beach and this terrible tragedy happens.”

The sheriff's office is investigating the girl's death. Ms King said that would also include investigating how the gap got so big.

Up to three people are killed each year in the country by collapsing sand on beaches, said Tom Gill, vice president of the United States Life Saving Association. “We have always known that the ocean is an incredibly dynamic environment,” he said by phone Wednesday. “But the sand is quite similar.”

Earlier this month one The 2-year-old boy was rescued from a collapsed sand pit on a Jersey Shore beach, and in May a teenager died after being buried in three feet of sand in a hole dug in a dune area in a North Carolina national park. a Study from 2007 published in The New England Journal of Medicine cited 52 fatal and non-fatal cases nationwide in the previous decade.

Mr Gill, of the Life Saving Association, said a good rule of thumb is never to dig a hole deeper than the knee of the smallest person who can get into it. Lifeguards are alert to holes that appear too big or need to be filled, he added, and play a crucial role in preventing such accidents and rescuing people who become trapped.

Lauderdale-by-the-Sea officials did not immediately respond Wednesday to a request for information about whether or not the beaches have lifeguards. They directed further questions to the sheriff's office.

The girl's family could also not immediately be reached on Wednesday.

Kirsten Noyes research contributed.