Travelers should add the collapse of sand holes to summer dangers at the beach, because they are more dangerous than sharks.
New research found there were 16 sand hole or tunnel deaths in the US from 1990-2006 compared with 12 fatal shark attacks for the same period, according to University of Florida statistics.
Since 1985, at least 20 children and young adults in the US have died in beach or backyard sand submersions and at least eight others have died in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, according to a letter in of The New England Journal of Medicine.
Sand hole collapses occur horrifyingly fast, said Dr. Bradley Maron of Harvard Medical School, who wrote a report on the dangers of sand holes, adding, “Typically, victims became completely submerged in the sand when the walls of the hole unexpectedly collapsed, leaving virtually no evidence of the hole or location of the victim,” wrote Mr Maron, an internal medicine resident.
Mr Maron is a former lifeguard who became interested in the topic in 1998.
He was vacationing with his family on Martha’s Vineyard when he and his father, Minnesota cardiologist Dr. Barry Maron, saw a lifeguard responding to a collapse that engulfed an 8-year-old girl.
The girl survived, thanks to a dramatic rescue, but it left a big impression on Mr Maron, who’s spent years tracking — and writing about — similar incidents.
Report by David Wilkening
