Student Dies in Sand Pit After Collapse
A 19-year-old student died on Wednesday after a sand pit collapsed on him. Authorities have called the death a tragic accident and have cautioned others not to try and dig holes in the sand due to its instability.
The young man, Mingyu Sang, was a Korean exchange student at Master's College. He was enjoying a day at the beach with friends and managed to dig a 6-foot deep sand pit. When he laid down in the pit, the sand shifted and collapsed in on him.
"I think the kids were just having fun on the beach," Battalion Chief Darwin Base of the Oxnard Fire Department told NBC Los Angeles. "There was a big group of them down there. They were taking pictures of each other and from what I understand, the individual was laying back in the pit and taking pictures of his fellow students, and that's when it sloughed and came in on him."
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Friends immediately called for help, and rescuers appeared on the scene and spent nearly 15 minutes digging Sang out of the sand. CPR was performed as Sang was rushed to the hospital, but he was declared dead.
Unfortunately, Sang's case is not the only one, though it is one of the rare stories where a sand-trap victim died. In 2011, Ryan Buchanan and friends from his church went to Sunset State Beach and managed to create an underground passage that was seven feet deep.
When Ryan entered the tunnel, it collapsed and trapped him underground. He was unconscious when rescuers finally reached him, but his heart was still beating. Now he is in a persistent vegetative state, a result of his brain being deprived of oxygen for 15 to 20 minutes.
"We have hope that he could still recover," Ryan's mother told his doctors. "You're going to do everything you can for our son to keep him alive."
Ryan's parents eventually brought him home, though he still remains in a vegetative state.
Lifeguards frequently warn visitors not to build holes because they are so unstable.
"It's really something people need to know about," Chief Base told NBC.
