Sand Pit Collapses, Kills Boy

S A L I S B U R Y, Mass. Aug. 23 -- A 13-year-old boy digging a hole at the beach with three companions died after the sand collapsed and buried him in a 5-foot-deep hole.

Fire Chief Paul Antonellis said the hole was several feet wide,but it collapsed so uniformly Tuesday night that the beach appearednearly flat afterward.

“If you were to walk up to it, other than those kids walking upto it saying ‘he’s here, dig here,’ it just looked like beach. Thearea hadn’t been disturbed,” he said.

The boys had been digging in the sand at the Salisbury BeachClub, about 40 miles north of Boston. After the hole collapsedaround one boy, Ivan Smith, the others ran to a local bar to callfor help.

Using small shovels, rescue workers reached the boy’s head,4 feet down, within 15 minutes. By then his breathing had stopped,and there was no sign of a heartbeat.

They struggled to free the rest of his body, but sand floodedback into every hole they dug.

“It kept caving in; they kept digging to get [him] out,”police inspector Richard Simmons told reporters.

After about 40 minutes, authorities called off the rescuemission and brought in heavy equipment that moved enough sand sothat the boy’s body could be removed.

Antonellis estimated 35 cubic yards of sand had to be removedbefore the body could be freed. It took about 90 minutes.