A 7-year-old Indiana girl who died after being buried alive in the sand on a Florida beach most likely suffocated as the weight of the shifting ground prevented the child from breathing and presumably obstructed her airway, medical experts said.
Sloan Mattingly died Feb. 20 in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea while on vacation with her parents.
She and her 9-year-old brother, Maddox, were playing in a deep hole they had dug on the beach when it collapsed, trapping both children beneath the ground.
No lifeguards were stationed on the beach at the time.
The incident highlighted the danger of digging holes on the beach, which can turn deadly in collapse as the crushing weight of sand pins the arms and prevents a person from moving, making it impossible to dig out, said Dr. James Gill, Chief Medical Examiner of Connecticut.
“There are two ways that death can result in this scenario,” Gill told Atlanta Black Star. “One is asphyxia due to lack of oxygen as there is little air available to breathe, and the sand can block the airway. The other mechanism is compression of the chest. If the sand is heavy enough, the weight can prevent a person from being able to breathe in and out. These types of deaths also can occur at construction sites when digging deep trenches for sewer pipes, for example.”
Gill emphasized prevention as the best way to avoid a similar tragedy.
“Do not go into these holes,” he warned. “Similar things can happen with snow avalanches or sand dunes that shift.”
Dr. Kofi A. Afrifah, a criminal justice expert at Bowie State University in Maryland, warned parents to keep a close eye on children at the beach as the sand was a “hidden danger” in what’s otherwise a breezy destination for a family getaway.
“Children can get trapped in many ways. For example, children like to dig holes or tunnels to create pits in the sand when they are playing,” Afrifah explained. “The pit created may cave in…
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