FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The collapse of a sand hole that killed a 7-year-old Indiana girl who was digging with her brother on a Florida beach is an under-recognized danger that kills and injures several children a year around the country.
Sloan Mattingly died Tuesday afternoon at Lauderdale-by-the-Sea's beach when a 4-to-5-foot-deep (1-to-1.5-meter) hole collapsed on her and her 9-year-old brother, Maddox. The boy was buried up to his chest, but the girl was fully covered. Video taken by a bystander shows about 20 adults trying to dig her out using their hands and plastic pails, but the hole kept collapsing on itself.
