Girl who died in sand hole on Lauderdale-by-the-Sea identified; lifeguards could have prevented tragedy, experts say

A family from Indiana was enjoying a beach day at Lauderdale-by-the-Sea on Tuesday afternoon when the large hole the two young children were digging in the sand collapsed, burying them alive, officials say.

The children were identified by the Broward Sheriff’s Office Wednesday as 7-year-old Sloan Mattingly and her 9-year-old brother, Maddox. Sloan had no pulse when paramedics managed to extricate her from the sand, and later died in the hospital. Maddox was also buried but survived.

Ocean rescue experts say Sloan’s death might have been prevented if the beach was staffed with lifeguards. In other nearby coastal towns, lifeguards are instructed to tell beachgoers about the risks of digging in the sand, and to stop people from digging any deeper than either knee- to waist-height, or about 2 feet. The hole the two were digging on Tuesday was between 5 and 6 feet deep, officials say.

But Lauderdale-by-the-Sea does not currently staff any of its beaches with lifeguards. Pompano Beach provides fire and ocean rescue services to the town, and responded to the beach incident as soon as it was reported, said spokesperson Sandra King.

“This doesn’t happen on guarded beaches,” said Jim McCrady, vice president and Lifesaving Academies director of the U.S. Lifesaving Association Southeast Region, who also works as a surf rescue chief in Hallandale Beach. “We do that all day long. We spot hazards and then we mitigate the dangers involved in those hazards. This is a daily thing that happens on a guarded beach, when someone starts to dig a hole. We not only tell the person not to dig a deep hole, but to fill it in before they leave.”

Lauderdale-by-the-Sea Mayor Chris Vincent said that the town commission had already begun considering a quote for lifeguard services from Pompano Beach this year, but he declined to speculate on whether lifeguards would have helped in this case.

“It’s unfortunate, maybe, we didn’t have it now,” he told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “I’m not sure that would’ve saved the child’s life. I don’t want to hypothesize whether lifeguards at that time, there would’ve been a chance; I don’t know that, I don’t think anybody knows that.”

Aimee Adler, the spokesperson for the town of Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, directed all questions about the incident to the Broward Sheriff’s Office, other than saying that the beach was open on Wednesday and the sand had been leveled.

Sloan and Maddox were playing in the sand in the 4400 block of El Mar Drive, just north of Anglin’s Fishing Pier, about 3 p.m. Tuesday, officials say, a normal time to go to the beach for a family, with plenty of people around. Pompano Beach Fire Rescue responded to find Maddox buried up to his chest in the sand, Sloan completely buried beneath him. Witness cellphone video showed people trying to dig them out, WTVJ-Ch. 6 reported.

Fire rescue had to dig with shovels and supportive boards to keep more sand from collapsing into the hole as they rescued the girl, King said. She did not immediately know how long the children were buried before they were removed.

Sloan was taken to Broward Health Medical Center, where she was later pronounced dead. Maddox was also hospitalized but in stable condition. BSO did not identify the childrens’ parents Wednesday or provide an update on Maddox’s condition.

How does it happen?

Deaths by sand-hole collapse are more common than people think, outnumbering shark attacks. But while most people don’t realize the dangers associated with digging on the beach, ocean rescue experts are well aware of them.

“The thing is, it doesn’t happen that often,” said Dr. Stephen Leatherman, or “Dr. Beach,” a professor in the Department of Earth and Environment at Florida International University. “So, since it doesn’t happen that often, no one thinks about it; it’s not common. But in terms of loss of life it’s way too common.”

The victims are almost always children.

Leatherman called sand holes a “death trap.” Dry sand can only hold an angle of 33 degrees, so when someone digs a hole, the wet sand begins to collapse as it dries out, exposed to air and sun.

Other things can trigger a collapse, such as if someone walks near the edge of the hole.

When Leatherman heard the hole the children had dug was 5 to 6 feet deep, he was surprised. It is unclear whether the children had help from a parent.

The collapse can take place in the blink of an eye, experts say. Even if a parent was watching, there would be little they could do to prevent it.

People should never dig holes deeper than 2 feet, Leatherman said: “The deeper the hole, the more sand can collapse on top of you.” And they should never cover someone’s head in sand.

But it’s possible to die even if your head is exposed, McCrady said. The sand is so heavy that sometimes it can make it too difficult for your lungs to expand. If your body is covered, the sand can pin your arms to your sides, making it impossible to pull yourself out.

A small amount of sand is also very heavy, Leatherman said, heavier than snow. Even a foot of sand is enough to suffocate someone. And unlike snow, sand fills in all empty spaces, making air pockets unlikely.

“You’re much better off being buried in snow than sand,” Leatherman said.

Once someone is trapped under the sand, they typically have only between 3 and 5 minutes to live, experts say, the amount of time someone can hold their breath.

Yet extricating someone from the sand is often a time-consuming and tricky process, because the sand continues to fill the hole as a rescuer is digging; standing too close could cause the hole to collapse further. Leatherman said the extrication can take anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes, but other rescues have taken upwards of an hour.

In the case of Sloan and Maddox, firefighters and paramedics had to use boards to hold up the hole’s walls so that it wouldn’t collapse further.

“We had to go to the effort of making sure it was carefully done so we didn’t cause more damage,” King said.

Would this happen on a beach with lifeguards?

Though the average beachgoer might not know about the dangers, South Florida’s lifeguards typically stop people from digging holes too deep and warn them of the dangers associated with digging holes, local officials say.

If Lauderdale-by-the-Sea had lifeguards, it’s possible they would have stopped the children from digging the hole in the first place.

“People don’t understand the dangers involved in this type of hazard,” McCrady said. “Fortunately, most of the beach patrols and ocean lifeguards are trained in this or at least have ordinances that prevent this from happening.”

Palm Beach County Ocean Rescue Lieutenant Dan Barnickel said that the beaches in his jurisdiction have a rule that people can’t dig deeper than their knees. Lifeguards are instructed to look for people who come to the beach with shovels and speak to them ahead of time.

“If we see them come down with shovels, we talk to them before they even start digging,” Barnickel said. “We see somebody digging, going too deep, we go down and say ‘Hey, just know you can’t dig deeper than your knees.’ Explain to them that people suffocate when the sand has filled in on them.”

King said that Pompano Beach lifeguards would have responded similarly.

“Our lifeguards make so many contacts with people just to talk to them about water safety,” she said. “If they saw someone building such a deep hole with little children they would likely go talk to them.”

In Hallandale Beach, lifeguards are instructed to stop people from digging beyond waist-deep, McCrady said.

Fort Lauderdale has an ordinance that prohibits people from digging holes regardless of height, according to Ocean Rescue Chief Alex Bagwell. The ordinance is “in effect for various reasons,” she said. “One would be, sand is unstable and it can collapse.”

“If the lifeguards see people digging holes or getting ready to dig a hole, they just educate the public on our ordinances,” Bagwell added. “We do give them reasons if needed.”

Holes can also present a hazard to emergency vehicles driving along the beach, as well as sea turtles; digging is expressly forbidden during turtle-nesting season, from March to October, in Palm Beach County as well as Fort Lauderdale.

Despite popular belief, lifeguards don’t only protect against dangers in the water, Barnickel said; one of the calls that Pompano Beach lifeguards respond to the most is lost children, King pointed out.

Unfortunately, many beaches across South Florida don’t have lifeguards, and a nationwide shortage has made the situation more dire in recent years. But Barnickel always recommends that people go to a guarded beach.

“It’s always important to go to a lifeguarded beach,” he said. “Not just when there’s rip current and waves. Just all the time.”

Lifeguards staffed at the beach would also be able to respond more quickly, Barnickel said. The majority are trained EMTs who can provide “prehospital care” regardless of the situation.

It is unclear why Lauderdale-by-the-Sea does not currently have lifeguards. But the town recently received a bid and quote from Pompano Beach for lifeguard services and may decide on it fairly quickly, Mayor Vincent said, though the lifeguards, if hired, would cover only a “short segment of the beach.”

He did not know what that segment would be or if it would cover the same area where Sloan and Maddox were playing.

Now, the issue could get on the agenda “fairly quick,” Vincent said. “If that’s what the town’s decision is going to be, we are ready to act.”

Other sand-hole collapses

Deadly sand-hole collapses have happened in South Florida before, though they are rare. Luckily, in the few local cases, victims survived.

In 2011, a 19-year-old Austrian Olympic swimmer, Jakub Maly, was buried up to his neck in sand after digging a 7-foot hole in Pompano Beach. At one point, the sides collapsed, burying his head. Team members tried to dig him out, but more sand kept falling into the hole. Someone ran to a stretch of beach where there were lifeguards and about 60 rescue personnel ended up responding to extricate him. He was hospitalized but survived.

A decade before that, in 2000, 14-year-old Diego Lefebre was buried after standing in a 12-foot hole he had dug on Deerfield Beach. His mom dove in, managing to remove enough sand that he could breathe. It took nine Deerfield Beach Fire Rescue workers an hour to extricate Diego from the hole; at one point he told them he was cold and having trouble breathing.

“He had a little bucket and a shovel,” Broward County firefighter John Monti told the Sun Sentinel at the time. “He was way down there, and his head was sticking out. He must have been at it for a while.”

Sun Sentinel staff writer Angie DiMichele contributed to this report.