Sharks are the least of your worries if you're planning a trip to the beach this summer. The new killer? Sand. We're not kidding. More than two dozen young people have died worldwide over the past 10 years when sand holes collapsed on them, reports The Associated Press. One of the favorite seashore pastimes is to dig in the sand. But if you dig too deep, the sand can cave in, harming you or someone else who happens upon your sand hole hours later.
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Here is one horror story: Matthew Gauruder, 17, attended an after-prom beach party in Westerly, R.I., in May 2001 and joined in a football game with his friends. When he jumped for a pass, he fell backward into an eight-foot-deep hole that someone else had dug earlier in the day. Rescuers had great difficulty reaching Gauruder because the sand caved in as they approached him. It's estimated he was buried for 15 minutes before he was pulled out--dead. Now father-and-son medical doctors have embarked on a personal campaign to sound the warning. Dr. Bradley Maron of Harvard Medical School says sand hole collapses occur horrifyingly fast. "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," Maron, an internal medicine resident and a former lifeguard, wrote in The New England Journal of Medicine. His interest in the hazard was sparked when he witnessed an 8-year-old girl being swallowed by sand on Martha's Vineyard. She survived, but it left an impression on Maron.
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More dangerous than a shark: Maron and his father, Dr. Barry Maron, discovered in their research that there were 16 sand hole or tunnel deaths in the United States from 1990 to 2006, compared with 12 fatal shark attacks during that same period. There have been 31 recreational sand hole deaths since 1985 in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, as well as another 21 incidents in which a person was rescued from a collapse. The victims are typically boys ages 3 to 21 with an average age of 12.
Click to see four very different, up-close shots of the rarely seen frilled shark, which lives more than 2,000 feet under the sea. The 5-foot long frilled shark looks more like an eel than a shark, but has a mouthful of needle-sharp teeth.
So does this mean you can't dig in the sand at the beach? No. Maron says just don't get into a hole that is deeper than your knees. If you see a hole on the beach, kick sand to fill it in.
Where is paradise on Earth? Find out the top 10 beaches in the U.S.A.
Here is one horror story: Matthew Gauruder, 17, attended an after-prom beach party in Westerly, R.I., in May 2001 and joined in a football game with his friends. When he jumped for a pass, he fell backward into an eight-foot-deep hole that someone else had dug earlier in the day. Rescuers had great difficulty reaching Gauruder because the sand caved in as they approached him. It's estimated he was buried for 15 minutes before he was pulled out--dead. Now father-and-son medical doctors have embarked on a personal campaign to sound the warning. Dr. Bradley Maron of Harvard Medical School says sand hole collapses occur horrifyingly fast. "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," Maron, an internal medicine resident and a former lifeguard, wrote in The New England Journal of Medicine. His interest in the hazard was sparked when he witnessed an 8-year-old girl being swallowed by sand on Martha's Vineyard. She survived, but it left an impression on Maron.
Look what they found off Israel's Dor Beach--a treasure from the 8th century.
More dangerous than a shark: Maron and his father, Dr. Barry Maron, discovered in their research that there were 16 sand hole or tunnel deaths in the United States from 1990 to 2006, compared with 12 fatal shark attacks during that same period. There have been 31 recreational sand hole deaths since 1985 in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, as well as another 21 incidents in which a person was rescued from a collapse. The victims are typically boys ages 3 to 21 with an average age of 12.
Click to see four very different, up-close shots of the rarely seen frilled shark, which lives more than 2,000 feet under the sea. The 5-foot long frilled shark looks more like an eel than a shark, but has a mouthful of needle-sharp teeth.
So does this mean you can't dig in the sand at the beach? No. Maron says just don't get into a hole that is deeper than your knees. If you see a hole on the beach, kick sand to fill it in.
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