LAUDERDALE-BY-THE-SEA, Fla. – The collapse of a sand hole that killed a 7-year-old Indiana girl who was digging with her brother on a South Florida beach is an underrecognized danger that kills and injures several children a year around the country.
Sloan Mattingly and her brother Maddox, 9, who were visiting Lauderdale-by-the-Sea on a family trip from Fort Wayne, Indiana, were buried when a sand hole they had been digging in collapsed. The boy was buried up to his chest, but the girl was fully covered.
Maddox survived, but Sloan later died at a local hospital after onlookers and first responders frantically worked to dig her out.
Witnesses said Sloan was buried under the sand for well over 15 minutes.
“It was just so tragic. I mean, you’re standing there and you realize there’s no way she could still be alive,” witness David Davies said.
Sandra King, a spokesperson for Pompano Beach Fire Rescue, said rescue crews took over for the bystanders, using shovels to dig out the sand and boards to stabilize the hole, but when they got to the girl she had no pulse. King said paramedics immediately began resuscitation efforts, but Sloan was pronounced dead at the hospital. The boy’s condition has not been released.
King said the children’s parents were extremely distraught and the paramedics who treated the children had to be relieved from their shift.
“It was a horrible, horrible scene. Just imagine one minute your children are playing in the sand and then in seconds you have a life-threatening situation with your little girl buried,” said King, whose department services Lauderdale-by-the-Sea.
Officials with the Broward Sheriff’s Office said they are still investigating the circumstances leading to Sloan’s death. It’s not yet clear whether an adult was helping the children dig the hole or if it was already there.
Her mother, Therese Mattingly, posted a tribute to her daughter on Facebook.
“A freak accident happened yesterday while we are here on vacation and it took away our greatest 7.5 years,” Mattingly wrote. “Don’t tell us you’re sorry for our loss…don’t do that to us. We experienced the purest human being and we are forever changed by her.”
While at the scene near High Noon Beach Resort Wednesday, Local 10 News did not see lifeguards along the stretch of Lauderdale-by-the-Sea Beach.
Local 10 reached out to a town spokesperson to find out if there are any rules in place about digging sand holes, but officials have yet to respond as of Thursday.
But in neighboring Fort Lauderdale, it’s forbidden.
“Sand is unstable, (so the) city of Fort Lauderdale has a beach ordinance saying no digging holes” Alex Bagwell, who leads Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue’s ocean rescue division, said.
News reports and a 2007 medical study show that about three to five children die in the United States each year when a sand hole they are digging at the beach, a park or at home collapses on top of them. Others are seriously injured and require CPR to survive.
Those who died include a 17-year-old boy who was buried at a North Carolina beach last year, a 13-year-old who was digging into a sand dune at a state park in Utah and an 18-year-old who was digging with his sister at a New Jersey beach. Those two accidents happened in 2022.
“The risk of this event is enormously deceptive because of its association with relaxed recreational settings not generally regarded as hazardous,” the New England Journal of Medicine study concluded.
Lifeguards say parents need to be careful about letting their children dig at the beach and not let them get too deep.
Patrick Bafford, the lifeguard manager in Clearwater, said his staff will warn families if a hole gets too big but sometimes they aren’t noticed in time.
“We have had events where people have had close calls or died because of a collapse,” he said. “You want them to have fun, (but) there’s a difference between fun and a hazard they might face. It’s hard really for people to understand that the beach can be a hazard. Bad things can still happen no matter what. Use good judgment.”
Shawn DeRosa, who runs a firm that trains lifeguards, said “many people don’t think through the risks in allowing children to dig deep or wide holes.”
“They know that the sand might slide down or that a wall could collapse, but they don’t seem to envision their child being buried in the sand so quickly,” he said. “Nor do they appreciate the real challenge in getting the child out of the sand once the collapse has occurred.”
The National Park Service warns beachgoers against digging holes, stressing sand can collapse and trap people; it’s also hazardous for first responders and wild life.
Park officials say no hole should be deeper than your knees and if you dig one or see one, fill it up before leaving.
Sloan’s loved ones have set up a GoFundMe page to help pay for her funeral expenses.
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Associated Press writer Curt Anderson in Clearwater contributed to this report.