Sand hål

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 year-old boy died in North Carolina when a dune fell into the hole he was digging; in March, a year-old boy died in rural Minnesota; in , 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 and 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

•