Tragedy struck a Florida beach on Tuesday when a 7-year-old girl died after a sand hole she was playing in with her brother collapsed, burying them both. The incident occurred in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, a coastal town near Miami, where Sloan Mattingly and her 9-year-old brother, Maddox, were on vacation with their family from Indiana, according to the Broward County Sheriff’s Office.
The harrowing situation unfolded in the afternoon, prompting a frantic response from beachgoers and emergency responders. A registered nurse, among those present, made a distressing 911 call, reporting a young girl buried in the sand while others scrambled to dig her out. Footage from the scene captured the chaotic efforts of bystanders trying to rescue the children from the collapsed sand hole.
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Rescue teams from Pompano Beach Fire Rescue arrived swiftly, finding the siblings trapped in the four to five feet deep hole. While the boy was buried up to his chest, his sister was completely submerged beneath the sand. Rescuers managed to extract them both, but despite their efforts to resuscitate her, Sloan had no pulse upon arrival at the hospital and was later pronounced dead. Maddox, fortunately, escaped unharmed.
The heartbreaking incident has prompted an investigation by the sheriff’s office, which will examine the circumstances surrounding the creation of the large sand hole. Such tragedies are rare but not unprecedented, with up to three people per year in the United States falling victim to collapsing sand at beaches, according to Tom Gill, Vice President of the United States Lifesaving Association.
