Digging huge holes in the sand

[30A Skunkape]

As if there are not enough good reasons to avoid digging huge holes, I wanted to share a story I heard yesterday. About two years ago, a park employee was cruising the beach at Grayton Beach State Park on an ATV (as they apparently do most early mornings). She did not see a huge crater some idiot had excavated the day before;her ATV fell in, and she was thrown forward. Her face struck the steering column with such force she suffered severe fractures and facial trauma-she had to go to Jacksonville for reconstructive surgery!

 

[TooFarTampa]

:roll: This should be a sticky.

 

[Smiling JOe]

ouch!

 

[Franny]

That is awful!! I have also heard stories of people becoming buried in sand holes. So dangerous.

 

[Smiling JOe]

Luckily, I have no injuries from my numerous falls into the holes. It is very easy to fall into one. You are walking on the beach, looking at the dolphin swim, or the sunset on the horizon, with nothing noticeable in your peripheral vision, then, suddenly you feel like an idiot for not seeing the hole in the beach. The white sand really doesn't show shadows and the only way you will see the holes is if you are looking directly at them in the daytime. I may go claim that big snow shovel which has been on the beach for a week in Seagrove, and start filling in holes on the beach when I get the urge.

 

[DavidD]

It is a proven fact that large sandholes can be fatal. We are constantly warning tourists with small children that playing in holes. A 2.5 year old almost died in Seagrove last year when a hole collapsed on a child that was playing in it. The child was barely saved by a stranger seeing an arm, while the mother thought the child was in the Gulf. I personally know someone whose 12 yr old nephew suffocated in a sand hole in his own yard. And I've read about some college aged kids who dug a huge hole and one of them fell in it while playing volleyball- it collapsed and not even several young men could pull him out. He died. It is almost a quicksand-type phenomenon that should not be taken lightly. And of course, holes screw with the turtles.
I always try to fill in, or make more shallow, holes I come across.

 

[ASH]

On average, 20 people per year die in the US due directly to holes dug on beaches from either injuries from falling or from suffocation. Very needless and very preventable.

 

[Minnie]

July 14, 2008

ISSUE: Little-known danger at the beach: collapsing sand holes.

It is the first move for many children upon hitting any South Florida beach, sunscreen slathered on, bucket and pail in hand: digging a hole in the sand, all the way to China, if possible.

What most parents don't know is that this innocent task has at times turned deadly. It's still a rare occurrence, but considering how popular sand digging is among kids, it's worth a cautionary note as the summer season hits its stride. Two important things to know: Never let children dig deep holes, and never leave them unsupervised.

Harmless as it seems, hole digging can be unpredictable. The sides of a sand hole are unstable and can collapse, burying the child under mounds of suffocating weight. At that stage, rescue can be difficult: Sand is a lot like sugar in a bowl, filling in gaps as soon as they are formed and exasperating efforts to dig someone out of trouble in time.

It may sound far-fetched and overly cautious. After all, the greater dangers at the beach revolve around rip tides and other drowning-related perils.

Nonetheless, more than a number of children have been saved by quick-acting adults who knew how to create an air pocket around a buried head to buy time until they could be unearthed.

But for at least 38 children over at least the past 10 years, rescue didn't come in time and they perished, according to Dr. Bradley Maron, a Brigham Women's Hospital doctor who has studied the phenomenon and appeared on a recent NBC Today Show segment to warn parents of the little-known danger.

Maron said he has collected information on at least 62 incidents in all of people ? the average age is 10 ? trapped in collapsed sand holes.

The Today Show also quoted research that suggests more people die in sand holes than from shark attacks. Both are still extremely rare, but it's important that beachgoers become just as aware, and guarded, about one as they are the other.

That means keeping as watchful an eye on your child on the sand as you would in the water. Either could turn tragic for the beachgoer caught unaware.

BOTTOM LINE: Watch children on sand as vigilantly as in the water.


Copyright ? 2008, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

 

[kathydwells]

Luckily, I have no injuries from my numerous falls into the holes. It is very easy to fall into one. You are walking on the beach, looking at the dolphin swim, or the sunset on the horizon, with nothing noticeable in your peripheral vision, then, suddenly you feel like an idiot for not seeing the hole in the beach. The white sand really doesn't show shadows and the only way you will see the holes is if you are looking directly at them in the daytime. I may go claim that big snow shovel which has been on the beach for a week in Seagrove, and start filling in holes on the beach when I get the urge.

SJ, if it is at the bottom of the Emeral Hill Condo stairs, it was there when we were there!!!! I put it next to the trash can thinking they would take it, but they never did. Go get it!!!!!

How sad for that poor girl!!!!

 

[Jdarg]

SJ, if it is at the bottom of the Emeral Hill Condo stairs, it was there when we were there!!!! I put it next to the trash can thinking they would take it, but they never did. Go get it!!!!!

How sad for that poor girl!!!!

That shovel is the size used at zoos to shovel elephant poop. I can't imagine why anyone would need a shovel that size at the beach!