An 18-year-old and his sister were visiting a beach on the Jersey Shore when they began digging a hole in the sand. According to Toms River police, the brother and sister were visiting The Shore from Maine.
While digging the hole, the sand around them collapsed inward, burying the brother and sister underneath. Rescue crews worked feverishly to free the teenagers from the sand.
Teen Doing Popular Beach Activity Tragically Dies In New Jersey
Sadly, while first responders were able to free the sister, who sustained several injuries, her brother was killed. The teen has been identified as Levy Caverley, News 12 reports.
The incident occurred at 4 p.m. on May 17. How or why this accident occurred is still under investigation. Because the beaches don’t open until Memorial Day Weekend, no lifeguards were on duty.
In the video above, shared by Lauren Due, a journalist for News 12, you can see the assembly line that was formed in an attempt to free the teenagers.
It also remains unclear who found the teenagers after the sand collapsed on them. While digging moats on the beach is commonplace for many beachgoers, officials are issuing a warning to those who partake in the activity.
According to News12, officials are warning people to be “very careful when digging in the sand and to never dig too deep.” As Ocean City Today further reports, many beaches don’t even allow deep holes to be dug.
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“Sand holes are particularly dangerous because they can collapse on the people digging them,” Ocean City Today warns. “Also, the vacation-oriented mindset of hole diggers clouds judgment and people tend to underestimate the possible dangers of jumping in and out of a giant sandpit.”
As Ocean City Today continues, “many times people want to get their picture taken in the hole that they dug not realizing that at any given moment the sand can cave in around them. Once a person is buried in the sand it is very difficult if not impossible to dig them out and have a positive outcome. Sand shifts back into place even as people try to move the sand off of a trapped victim.”
According to a 2007 report in the New England Journal of Medicine, 52 cases of collapsing sand holes during a 10-year period resulted in 31 deaths in the 12 U.S. states examined. How big the sand hole was in this instance is not immediately known.
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