BSO identifies children in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea beach sand hole collapse
The girl who died after a 5- to 6-foot deep sand hole collapsed on her and and her brother Tuesday afternoon at Lauderdale-by-the-Sea has been identified by the Broward Sheriff’s Office.
She is 7-year-old Sloan Mattingly; her brother, Maddox Matttingly, is 9 years old, BSO said Wednesday afternoon.
The children and their parents were vacationing from Indiana, the sheriff’s office said in a statement. The children had dug the hole by the shore, authorities said.
“It was an unfathomable accident,” Pompano Beach Fire Rescue spokeswoman Sandra King said.
READ MORE: A girl buried by sand died at a Florida beach. It occurs more than people realize
On Tuesday, Pompano Beach Fire Rescue paramedics, after digging the two children out of the sand on the beach at 4424 El Mar Drive, rushed the girl to Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale, where doctors pronounced her dead, according to King.
Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies took the young boy to the hospital in stable condition, said King. It was unclear whether he was still in the hospital Wednesday afternoon.
Firefighters and deputies were dispatched to the beach around 3:15 p.m. Tuesday. When firefighters arrived, nearby Good Samaritans were trying to help dig the children out.
The boy was chest deep in the sand before firefighters were able to rescue him. His parents subsequently ran him to a BSO car, and deputies took him to the hospital, according to King.
But the girl, who was submerged beneath him in the sand for an unknown period of time, was still trapped.
Firefighters then used tools like shovels and supportive boards in an attempt to reach the girl without the hole further collapsing on her, added King.
By the time they rescued her, though, she was no longer breathing. King noted that paramedics’ attempts to revive her en route to the hospital were unsuccessful.
“The circumstances into this incident remain under investigation,” BSO said in a statement.
Tom Gill, vice president of the United States Lifesaving Association, an ocean lifesaver nonprofit, said sand collapse tragedies on the nation’s beaches are more common than people realize.
“This happens, once, twice, three times a year, and it’s preventable,” said Gill.
Gill, 52, is the chief for the Virginia Beach Lifesaving Service and has been an ocean lifeguard for 34 years. He said holes in the sand should be dug only to the height of the knee of the youngest person in a household.
Sand is extremely fine, and a hole in the beach is unstable and will eventually fill in. Gill said being inside a large hole at the beach is more dangerous than being inside a damaged building, because there is nothing structurally sound to keep sand from filling in around a person.
Rescuing someone in a sand hole takes a large concerted effort, with some people digging and pulling sand out, while others move it away from an area. Ocean lifeguards drill for such accidents, and Gill said it is one of the most difficult assignments.
“The bigger the hole, exponentially, the greater the danger,” Gill said.
An earlier version of this story had an incorrect age of the girl due to incorrect information provided by the Broward Sheriff’s Office, which later corrected the age to reflect she was 7 years old. This story will be updated as more information becomes available.
This story was originally published February 20, 2024 at 6:32 PM with the headline "BSO identifies children in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea beach sand hole collapse."
