24 replies to this topic

[Hum]

Police say a boy who was rushed to the hospital Tuesday after a sand tunnel collapsed over him at a beach in Long Branch, N.J., has died.

The 12-year-old, who has not been identified, was not breathing when he was pulled out of the sand late Tuesday afternoon, officials said. Lifeguards administered CPR on him, and he was taken to Monmouth Medical Center where he was placed in pediatric intensive care unit.

Witnesses at the beach said blood was coming out of the boy's nose when lifeguards were working on him.

Someone screamed for help from lifeguards, who were just 15 feet away, said Roebuck. The boy was pulled out, and lifeguards performed CPR on him as they waited for paramedics.

A beachgoer from Staten Island, N.Y., said the boy wasn't moving.

"They were pumping him, pressing on his stomach, trying to bring him back," she said. "They kept trying to revive him, pressing, pressing. There was blood coming out of his nose... He didn't move."

Sources said the tunnel was deep, and the weight of all the sand on the boy's chest made it impossible for him to breathe.

The boy was rushed to Monmouth Medical Center, where he was taken to the pediatric intensive care unit.

The boy is from Oakhurst, sources said, but his name is being withheld.

Authorities said a fire truck responding to the scene hit a man holding his infant son. The truck hit the pair as it pulled into Ocean Place near the beach, knocking them both to the ground.

Both were taken to the Jersey Shore Medical Center. The father suffered some broken limbs. The baby was injured but not severely.

source

[giantpotato]

When I was a kid, I was building a tunnel fort out of a huge pile of snow. When my dad stepped outside and saw what I was doing he went bat**** crazy, destroyed my fort and told me never to do that again. As a kid I was totally ****ed, but I hear of things like this and understand why he reacted like that. Kids don't understand they can die doing things like this, It' s up to the parents to stop them.

[Hum]

^ You can die walking out your door.

[+littleneutrino]

i used to dig tunnels in the sand when i was a kid but i was never going to go in them.

[+ShMaunder]

Sad accident. Though the last 3 paragraphs are strangely tagged onto the article:

Quote

Authorities said a fire truck responding to the scene hit a man holding his infant son. The truck hit the pair as it pulled into Ocean Place near the beach, knocking them both to the ground.

Both were taken to the Jersey Shore Medical Center. The father suffered some broken limbs. The baby was injured but not severely.

The firefighter driving the truck was working his last shift before his retirement, officials said.

His last shift before retirement?

Hum, on 20 July 2012 - 14:05, said:

^ You can die walking out your door.

Yes, we can all die just walking out thy door, but we can also die by playing Diablo 3 for 40 hours without a break. Its a very risky world.

[Hum]

ShMaunder, on 20 July 2012 - 14:14, said:

Yes, we can all die just walking out thy door, but we can also die by playing Diablo 3 for 40 hours without a break. Its a very risky world.

Don't forget those pesky meteorites that fall.

[+ShMaunder]

^ You also forgot about the aliens as well.

/offtopic

[Gaffney]

Can't go through life without taking risks but digging these tunnels can be dangerous. I did it once out of snow but I was smart and built supports using wood from the construction site nearby even though there was maybe only a foot of snow on top of it. Sand on the other hand is very heavy and not stable for tunnels.

[bguy_1986]

Too bad this doesn't happen in tunnels that go across our boarder from mexico....

[Lucas]

bguy_1986, on 20 July 2012 - 18:00, said:

Too bad this doesn't happen in tunnels that go across our boarder from mexico....

Wow, that's got to be a pretty ******* comment, and I'm not even from Mexico.

[Growled]

Very tragic.

[ozgeek]

This also happened near Ayr, Queensland, Australia a town far north of me. It was in the north and what was scary was I was travelling with family past this place when it happened. Similar story except TWO boys died:

http://www.brisbanet...0703-21ds2.html

[Blaze_Zewi]

Must be a very huge sand tunnel the kid dug.

The sand tunnel I usually dug while at the beach was 10 inch deep 1 feet across. And can only fit my arms...but that was long time ago.

R.I.P.

[Greyhorne]

Terribly sad story. One I can understand, yet only sympathise such a tragic end.
Twelve, is unfortunately that tween age. As I recall, an age I breached the physically limiting confines of childhood, yet still remained oblivious to the physically limiting confines of bikinis.

At twelve, I no longer brought a plastic bucket and matching seahorse shovel to the beach, but rather had upgraded to a folding, military issue, steel shovel. Lightweight, and conveniently compact for the beach, it was designed for digging nothing less than infantry foxholes, and if necessary, an underground bunker. An otherwise harmless piece of WW2 memorabilia, I somehow managed to obtain. I can recall fondly in my youth, believing there was no place better than the beach to dig, as you never got dirty. As I could easily dig down four to five feet deep in a matter of minutes, I never got dirty.
Fortunately for myself, I eventually tossed the shovel, when the remarkably luminescent, bikini appreciation lightbulb suddenly clicked on.*

[HawkMan]

giantpotato, on 20 July 2012 - 13:45, said:

When I was a kid, I was building a tunnel fort out of a huge pile of snow. When my dad stepped outside and saw what I was doing he went bat**** crazy, destroyed my fort and told me never to do that again. As a kid I was totally ****ed, but I hear of things like this and understand why he reacted like that. Kids don't understand they can die doing things like this, It' s up to the parents to stop them.

Snow is not the same as sand, and piling up snow to make caves and forts is quite common when there's not enough snow in itself.