That poor family

[QueenOfQuotes]

here

poor family. What an awful tragedy.

they (as in the kids)

I wonder if it took so long because they had to locate exactly where she was (if she was completely covered) as well as the sand pouring back in

No foxinsocks - they had a location for her very quickly (see first person account of lifeguard that I mentioned). It's as Starlover describes - very fine sand - as you dig away at it more collapses in its place.

poor thing

SO, did the children dig the hole or was the hole already underneath them as they started digging iykwim. Did they just dig and dig so deep that it started caving in?

It makes me run cold reading stories like this

I have been a mummy for 9mths now and the biggest shock has been my realisation that as a parent, I will be living with this constant, nagging worry about his safety for the rest of my life.
Poor family

Don't know GDG but there has been no suggestion of the scenario that you describe in the write ups so far

the write up in one of the dailies said they started playing in the hole and then started tunnelling from it - but having said that, some of the other reports make it sound like they did dig it (but I would be amazed if a 5yr old and 3 yr old could dig that deep on their own)

It's just awful, that poor family. I can't begin to imagine how they're feeling. I'm a volunteer beach lifeguard and I feel too for the lifeguards involved.

You aren't being neurotic, Blu. I watch dd like a hawk whenever we're at the beach and it's our second home.

I couldn't read all the account in the paper, it's too awful, about her crying out and then suffocating and that young lifeguard holding her arm as she died. Horrific. I'm really surprised people aren't aware of the dangers of digging in sand - there are quite often reports of workmen dying when digging holes in the road and there have been cases of children dying when tunnelling into sand dunes which then collapsed. But maybe I'm more aware because I was brought up by the (pebbly) seaside. It's still astonishing that two children could dig as deep as that, though.

i personally wouldn't let a 3 yr old play in a hole that came higher than her head.

i have to say that i wouldn't necessarily have realised that the hole may collapse under its own weight.
BUT, i would certainly have worried that if someone walked to the edge of the hole it would collapse... and that in mind i wouldn't have let kids play in it.

I don't feel like going to the beach ever again right now

THis is just so unbearable. How does anyone recover from seeing their child suffer and die in such a horrendous way. Her poor brother too.

GDG - apparently another holiday maker had dug the hole and when they left the children decided to play in it

Homemama re your 3:58 post, I'm exactly the same.

I can hardly bear to read the newspapers today about this. Horiffic. The thought of being able to feel her but not being able to pull her out.

Seen this on the papers today, but can't being myself to read the full story. I read the subtitle where a lifeguard said he could hear the little girl asking for her mummy...I had to stop reading then.

So horrific; so sad

I think I too can be over cautious with DD, but not here to judge. It's easy to do that after an event, but so many of us take risks, often without even realising it.

i just cant get my head around this one...tragic

the hole was 5ft deep? surely that cant be right? im only 5ft 3 myself. 5ft doesnt sound much until you think that if i stood up in a 5ft hole, the top would be just above my eyes and im an adult.