Five-year-old Sloan Mattingly of Indiana was buried in a rare but deadly event unknown to many Americans
The collapse of sand holes, like the one that killed a five-year-old Indiana girl who was digging with her brother on a Florida beach, is an under-recognized 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 4-5ft-deep (1-1.5-metre) hole collapsed on her and her seven-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, a small enclave north of Fort Lauderdale, does not have lifeguards at its beach, so no professionals were 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 by the Broward county sheriff’s office on Wednesday.
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.
