OCEAN CITY, Md. (AP) - The death of a Texas woman found buried on a Maryland beach is highlighting the potential dangers of digging holes in the sand.
The Daily Times reports that the danger is significant enough that beach patrols in Ocean City and Rehoboth Beach, Delaware enforce a rule barring beachgoers from digging holes deeper than knee-length.
A 2007 study in the New England Journal of Medicine found collapsing sand holes caused 31 deaths over a 10-year period in the 12 states examined in the report.
Thirty-year-old Ashley O'Connor of Plano, Texas, was found buried in the sand July 31 with only her arm sticking out of the sand. Police ruled her death an accident and say she ended up in a hole that collapsed around her on the beach around Second Street.
