MEN’S JOURNAL – A teenage boy died after he was buried alive inside a hole he had dug for himself on the beach while vacationing with his family.
The tragic incident occurred around 3 p.m. local time on July 10 in Montalto di Castro, Italy, located in the Viterbo province about 70 miles north of Rome. Corriere della Serra and Il Messaggero identified the victim as 17-year-old Riccardo Boni, who was on vacation from Rome with his father and two younger siblings.
Boni’s father was reportedly napping under an umbrella close to the shore while the teenager dug a hole in the sand and climbed in. As the tide rose, his other siblings moved further up the beach but left Boni and his father in the same area … read more.
When Sand Kills
Holes at the beach can be deadly, in rare but harrowing instances. Experts explain why—and how to stay safe.
By Anna Gibbs, March 01, 2024
SLATE – Digging holes in the sand is a staple beach activity for kids. But a fatal accident last week is a reminder that sand holes—even relatively small ones—pose a very real threat to children who climb inside them.
While on vacation in Florida, a 7-year-old girl and her older brother were buried when the approximately 5-foot hole they were digging suddenly collapsed in on them. Even though bystanders immediately worked to extricate them, the girl later died at the hospital.
Sand hole collapses claim at least a few lives each year.
Back in May, a 17-year-old boy died in North Carolina when a dune fell into the hole he was digging; in March, a 14-year-old boy died in rural Minnesota; in 2022, at least two teenagers were killed, one in Utah and the other in New Jersey.
The most recent study to crunch the numbers, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that there were 52 incidents of dangerous collapsing sand holes in the U.S. between 1990 and 2007. Over half of the incidents were fatal, and many of the survivors required resuscitation.
Capt. Butch Arbin, who oversees the Ocean City Beach Patrol in Maryland, has been involved in several such rescues during his five decades on the job. “Parents actually may be digging their own kid a grave and don’t even realize it,” he says.
The more frequent concern at the beach, says Arbin, is shark attacks. But while deaths from either are somewhat rare, sand holes are about as deadly as sharks …
