While debate continues over whether Lauderdale-by-the-Sea will pay lifeguards, or whether the majority of residents even want them, elected officials have made it illegal to dig deep holes in the sand to prevent another tragedy after a 7-year-old girl died earlier this year while being buried alive in the sand.
Sloan Mattingly, her 9-year-old brother and their parents were visiting Lauderdale-by-the-Sea from Indiana and arrived at the beach around 12:30 a.m. on Feb. 20. The children dug in the sand all day with a plastic shovel and bucket, and when they left the beach shortly after 3 p.m., Sloan and her brother, Maddox, wanted to “jump in the hole for the last time,” according to an autopsy report released Wednesday to the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
Sloan and Maddox ran and jumped into the 4 foot deep hole, and the sand began to collapse on them as Maddox stood upright. Sloan was completely buried beneath him while Maddox was buried up to his chest.
Sloan was pinned under her brother in the sand for 30 minutes, the report said. She had no pulse when she was freed from the sand and was pronounced dead at a hospital. The coroner ruled her death an accident.
New regulation
The commission recently passed an ordinance that prohibits people from digging a hole deeper than 18 inches in the sand and leaving the beach without completely filling it in. The city has also launched a beach safety campaign called Sandcastles for Sloan, warning people not to dig holes deeper than the knee height of the smallest person in the group.
The ordinance created three separate violations: taking, removing, mining, or excavating sand from a dune or beach within the city; digging a hole or trench in the sand of a beach or dune deeper than 18 inches; and leaving a hole without completely filling it.
City officials are considering hiring an additional enforcement officer who would act as a “beach ambassador” responsible for enforcing all ordinances, including the new one, Mayor Edmund Malkoon said in an email to the Sun Sentinel.
The penalties for any violations are not yet clear.
“If the commission does decide to vote for an additional enforcement officer, they should be trained in the proper enforcement of beachgoers,” Malkoon wrote in the email. “Of course, issuing a ticket to someone who is on a beach is different than issuing a ticket on private property. I would also imagine it depends on whether or not the person is cooperative. Perhaps you should inquire first and ask nicely.”
During an April 30 meeting where the commission discussed the ordinance, Vice Mayor Randy Strauss questioned whether it was necessary to amend the city’s code, or whether a beach rule could simply be created prohibiting digging. Commissioner Theo Poulopoulos said there would be no way to enforce the ordinance without creating one.
“Ultimately, these are words on a piece of paper that very, very few people will ever read, and the only thing that really matters is whether or not there is some form of enforcement,” Poulopoulos said during the meeting.
At the June 6 commission meeting, Malkoon said that several days earlier there were people who knew about the accident that killed Sloan but who were still digging trenches on the beach.
“A police officer went out there, but he had no jurisdiction because we didn’t have this rule, so it was like, ‘You shouldn’t be doing that,’ but he had no way to enforce it. So this will give BSO and others a little more power to enforce this rule on our beach,” Malkoon said at the meeting.
Rescuers still in discussion
City officials recently presented three possible plans for lifeguards or beach patrols on the city’s 2.5-mile stretch of shoreline: an option with the sheriff’s office that would cost more than $765,000 annually; lifeguards and ocean rescue services that would cost more than $1 million annually; and lifeguard-assisted beach patrols that would cost no more than $260,000 annually but would not provide medical care or rescue.
In May, three people died on the beach and in June one man possibly died after drowning.
On May 3, a man collapsed at the water’s edge, and deputies from the Broward Sheriff’s Office Lauderdale-by-the-Sea precinct patrolling the nearby beach responded immediately, according to a report from precinct commander Capt. William Wesolowski to City Manager Linda Connors in early June.
He was taken to Holy Cross Health in Fort Lauderdale, where he died, the report said. The man and his wife, who were visiting from New York, were participating in a guided snorkel dive.
On May 22, witnesses saw a man in the water who appeared to be struggling with a bodyboard and then fell facedown in the water, the report said. Bystanders pulled him from the water and began CPR. Pompano Beach Fire Rescue took him to Holy Cross Health, where he was pronounced dead.
Man drowns off Lauderdale-by-the-Sea coast months after girl dies in sand
On May 25, a 73-year-old resident of a nearby apartment complex entered the water wearing a snorkel and mask. He suffered a medical emergency, collapsed on the shore and was unresponsive, the report said.
People immediately began CPR and apartment staff attempted to shock her with an automated external defibrillator. Officers continued CPR when they arrived, but she was pronounced dead on the beach by Pompano Beach Fire Rescue, the report said.
The most recent example is the man who died in mid-June after being rescued from the ocean when he was about to drown.
Man dies after ‘possible drowning’ in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea; second death in less than a month
At a May 28 commission meeting, 10 residents voiced support for the lifeguards, with several critical of what they felt was not enough done since Sloan’s death.
Father Peter Zougros of St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church in Fort Lauderdale told the committee that he conducted the funeral the next day for one of the men who died May 22, a 52-year-old father and husband whose family is “deeply grieving this event.”
“It’s starting to get to a point now where we don’t feel as safe sending people here,” he said of his usual recommendations for tourists to go to Lauderdale-by-the-Sea.
Resident Brian Paperny said he remembers being warned by a man on the beach as a child not to dig deep holes and how dangerous it was.
“It’s been 90 days and I don’t know what measures have been taken, so it seems to me at this point, with the most recent death, that something needs to be done. We’re past the ‘should we or shouldn’t we’ question. We need to focus on what we’re going to do and how we’re going to implement it,” Paperny said.
Robert Karley, a resident who was formerly a member of the city’s volunteer fire department, told the meeting that when he was a volunteer patroller on the beach, he saw people up to their necks in holes in the sand. It was a difficult job to drag them out and cover the holes.
“Something has to be done, something more efficient than what we are doing now,” Karley said.
The city asked residents and businesses to complete a beach safety survey, which concluded in late June. The results of the survey will be presented at the city’s commission meeting Tuesday, Malkoon told the Sun Sentinel.
