Child dies after sand hole collapse

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The collapse of a sand hole that killed a 7-yearold Indiana girl who was digging with her brother on a Florida beach is an underrecognized danger that kills and injures several children a year around the country.

Sloan Mattingly died Tuesday afternoon at Lauderdale-by-the-Sea’s beach when a 4-to-5-footdeep hole collapsed on her and her 9-year-old brother, Maddox. The boy was buried up to his chest, but the girl was fully covered. Video taken by a bystander shows about 20 adults trying to dig her out using their hands and plastic pails, but the hole kept collapsing on itself.

Lauderdale-by-the-Sea does not have lifeguards at its beach, so there were no professionals immediately available to help. The first deputies arrived about four minutes after the collapse, with paramedics and firefighters arriving moments later, according to 911 calls released Wednesday by the Broward County Sheriff’s Office. The sheriff’s office originally said Sloan was 5 and her brother 7.

Wails of anguish can be heard in the background of the emergency call as bystanders try futilely to rescue Sloan. Two of the callers identified themselves as registered nurses, but there was nothing they could do to help.

“There is a little girl buried under the sand and they have not got to her yet,” one nurse told an operator.

Another woman who is weeping told the dispatcher, “There is a whole circle of men trying to dig, digging the sand.”

Sandra King, spokesperson for the Pompano Beach Fire-Rescue Department, said rescue crews took over for the bystanders, using shovels to dig out the sand and boards to stabilize the hole, but when they got to the girl she had no pulse. King said paramedics immediately began resuscitation efforts, but Sloan was pronounced dead at the hospital. The boy’s condition has not been released.