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Digging holes in the sand at the beach seems to be a primal human instinct. But it can be VERY dangerous and I am in full support of regulations that limit hole digging to a certain depth only.
A few years ago at Newport Beach, near where I live, a small child went missing. The parents ran to the lifeguard stand and while they were telling the lifeguard what he looked like, a man nearby realized that he had seen that child playing near the edge of a large hole some kids had been digging. He rushed to the hole, fished around in the bottom, and pulled the child out from under the sand just in the nick of time. The kid was turning blue. Fortunately, he recovered fully, but a few more minutes would have been too late.
The rule now is no holes deeper than 1 foot. The last time I was at Newport, last summer, we observed some kids with shovels starting to dig a deep hole, and a lifeguard came over promptly and told them that they had to stop, and why.
Thank you for this information. I don't really go to Newport anymore (as a dog owner just Rosie's Dog Beach, Huntington Dog Beach and Ocean Beach Dog Beach (San Diego) but this is good for people to be informed about. I imagine it will take a while for this information to become more widely known?
Another thing that can happen, which happened to me... a few years ago a huge shelf was created at Rosie's Dog Beach (Long Beach, California) due to a severe storm which flooded the parking lot. I almost stepped off the shelf, which was about 3-4 feet high. There was a kind of optical illusion and I had my eyes on my dogs, not the ground.
At one of our tourist attractions, we have some cliffs that have multi-coloured sand. I remember as a child, that regularly, while on holiday, there would be reports of deaths from cliff collapses, caused by tourists digging out the coloured sand. Digging has been banned now.
We (Ocean City, NJ) had a young girl, 13 I think, drown after she slipped off a jetty in the late evening on July 4th. There are signs to stay off the jetties but kids think they're invincible (plenty of adults disregard the signs too though). They get very slippery. I had just arrived at the boardwalk with my ex, and thousands of people were lining the boardwalk watching the ocean, we had to ask to find out what was going on. Helicopters came over with spotlights, but they have to keep moving so it's hard to get a wide view. Police and Lifeguards on jet skis. The search started as soon as she fell in and her friends called for help but she was swept away by then. I will never forget the woman's voice cracking over the public address system as she said "Will the parents of ______ please come to the Music Pier." She could barely get the words out. It makes me tear up just typing it. She washed up on the beach in Atlantic City 2 days later.
As an engineer with considerable experience in trenching operations, i.e. the digging of deep trenches for the placement of sewer lines, footers, or other construction work, I can tell you that digging into sandy soil is EXTREMELY dangerous. It's much more dangerous than digging in clay type soil although both can be fatal.
OSHA has strict regulations and requirements for the use of "trench boxes" while digging trenches or steep sided excavations. These trench boxes are very heavy metal boxes with strong metal braces that keep the sides of the box from collapsing if the soil collapses onto the side of the box. The workers are to stay INSIDE the trench box to protect them from collapse of the soil.
As a general rule, if you're digging in sandy soil, don't go more than 3 feet deep without some bracing of the sides of the excavation or a trench box to protect you. The angle of the sides of the excavation is important too. The more vertical the sides, the greater the danger of a slide or collapse of the side of the excavation.
Even soil with a heavy clay content can be dangerous if over 4 feet in depth, particularly if you are stooping, squatting, or nearly prone in the trench. Your best bet is not to get into any trench or hole or excavation that is deeper than your waist.
Of course, dumb kids (and many adults) don't know just how dangerous this is. The sides of an excavation collapse suddenly. There is no warning. One minute you're standing and thinking everything is OK and the next minute you're buried under tons of sand. Stay out of ANY excavation over 3 feet deep and don't even consider tunneling back into a bank or sand pile or you may well be digging your own grave. It happens way more often than you realize that people get killed when a trench, bank, or excavated hole collapses on someone.
That's always so sad to hear. Sand and snow. It happens too often. It is so preventable. I wonder if any rules about holes were posted? If not, it is still the responsibility of the beach goers to find out what rules you need to follow while at the beach.
I once fell in a hole while I was playing with my dogs on the beach. I was so mad that whoever dug it just left it. I'm lucky I didn't break my ankle. It's illegal to dig a hole bigger than 2 feet here or leave it unattended. You also have to refill it when you leave it. Maybe I'm wrong but I thought NJ had similar laws.
I thought that too. I remember Oprah had an episode about teens being buried alive in sand. I though sure the outcome was making a law to stop people from digging holes on the beach.
One thing I do also recall is the lifeguards must slam their surfboards on the side of where the person slowing being consumed by the sand is. That stops the sand from falling right back down after hand digging as fast as they can. See digging sand out does nothing since it just falls down into the hole again. Water might help but dry sand will drop right back down every time.
Anyway I wonder why no one was trained to know about the using the surfboards or some kind of board to stop it?
I thought that too. I remember Oprah had an episode about teens being buried alive in sand. I though sure the outcome was making a law to stop people from digging holes on the beach.
One thing I do also recall is the lifeguards must slam their surfboards on the side of where the person slowing being consumed by the sand is. That stops the sand from falling right back down after hand digging as fast as they can. See digging sand out does nothing since it just falls down into the hole again. Water might help but dry sand will drop right back down every time.
Anyway I wonder why no one was trained to know about the using the surfboards or some kind of board to stop it?
Lifeguards don’t start in NJ until Memorial Day weekend. The water temp is in the mid-50’s this time of year. And even then only select beaches are guarded because they don’t have enough to guard every beach until school gets out for the summer.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Javacoffee
Even a five-foot hole requires someone to jump into it to keep digging further down. Where's the commonsense here? This is such a senseless death.
They dug it horizontally. They started in a very wide hole that was maybe 15 feet across, and then got into that hole, and then dug horizontally, 10 feet. And then crawled in there.
But for the grace of God, my brother, when he was 6, would have died that way. He still wonders why he thought digging horizontally several feet into soil was a good idea.
Prayers for comfort for the family. Maybe these siblings had never been to the beach before or had never dug anything?
Sad. With all this digging - and it would take hours - was there no one to tell them this was deadly?
Thank you for this information. I don't really go to Newport anymore (as a dog owner just Rosie's Dog Beach, Huntington Dog Beach and Ocean Beach Dog Beach (San Diego) but this is good for people to be informed about. I imagine it will take a while for this information to become more widely known?
Another thing that can happen, which happened to me... a few years ago a huge shelf was created at Rosie's Dog Beach (Long Beach, California) due to a severe storm which flooded the parking lot. I almost stepped off the shelf, which was about 3-4 feet high. There was a kind of optical illusion and I had my eyes on my dogs, not the ground.
Another thing is rocks falling off cliffs on the beach and killing people, like the incident in Encinitas a few years back when three people from the same family perished, one boulder that hit them was as big as a bus. Reading about it really upset me because I used to sit by the cliffs on the beach in Carlsbad to block the wind as I was getting sun. I had no idea those cliffs aren't stable, I don't know if there were warning signs around.
Lifeguards don’t start in NJ until Memorial Day weekend. The water temp is in the mid-50’s this time of year. And even then only select beaches are guarded because they don’t have enough to guard every beach until school gets out for the summer.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ClaraC
They dug it horizontally. They started in a very wide hole that was maybe 15 feet across, and then got into that hole, and then dug horizontally, 10 feet. And then crawled in there.
But for the grace of God, my brother, when he was 6, would have died that way. He still wonders why he thought digging horizontally several feet into soil was a good idea.
Prayers for comfort for the family. Maybe these siblings had never been to the beach before or had never dug anything?
Sad. With all this digging - and it would take hours - was there no one to tell them this was deadly?
It is a private beach community, and it is preseason for NJ beaches in general, as ocnj pointed out. Unguarded beaches. Most lifeguards are college kids who are just finishing up their year and will start Memorial Day. It was a Maine family's first trip to NJ and they probably were unfamiliar with sandy beaches. A perfect storm.
Lifeguards don’t start in NJ until Memorial Day weekend. The water temp is in the mid-50’s this time of year. And even then only select beaches are guarded because they don’t have enough to guard every beach until school gets out for the summer.
Thank you for reminding me of that. I completely forgot about Memorial Day weekend.
Lifeguards don’t start in NJ until Memorial Day weekend. The water temp is in the mid-50’s this time of year. And even then only select beaches are guarded because they don’t have enough to guard every beach until school gets out for the summer.
I remember a time when there was a lifeguard at every stand on every beach in Southern California. Now you hardly see them. I couldn't believe it when I saw one at Rosie's Dog Beach a month ago. (Long Beach, CA) He wasn't there for very long either. He was mostly patrolling the huge stretch of beach in a big red truck.
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