The mayor of Lauderdale-by-the-Sea spoke out Friday about the sand hole tragedy that killed a young girl earlier in the week, saying possible safety measures will be discussed in the coming days.
The mayor of Lauderdale-by-the-Sea spoke out Friday about the sand hole tragedy that killed a young girl earlier in the week, saying possible safety measures will be discussed in the coming days.
Tuesday's collapsed sand hole killed 7-year-old Sloan Mattingly and left her 9-year-old brother Maddox critically injured.
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At an event Friday night, Mayor Chris Vincent held a moment of silence for the girl and discussed the incident.
"I was two blocks away when it happened and I actually walked down, I stayed away from the scene because that's not something I think I needed to be involved with," Vincent said. "It was pretty hectic and pretty chaotic. There was nothing I can do."
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Authorities said the kids, who are from Indiana, were at the beach Tuesday when a large sand hole collapsed on them.
Cellphone video from a witness showed desperate beachgoers using their hands to dig sand out of the hole as they tried to rescue the kids trapped underneath.
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Both children were pulled from the hole and rushed to the hospital in critical condition but Sloan Mattingly died from her injuries.
Vincent was asked if he thought a lifeguard had been there if the tragedy could have been prevented.
"I'm not going to opine on that or hypothesize on that," he said. "In this case, I think it's irrelevant to even go there."
The possible addition of lifeguards or an ordinance against digging holes on the beach were expected to be discussed at a town meeting on Tuesday.
"We'll have these conversations next week with respect to what we're going to do moving forward and putting an ordinance together to really decide on digging holes on the beach and or bringing lifeguards on the beach," Vincent said. "So as of right now, we don't have any answers, but we are going to entertain it for sure."
Vincent said he expects local leaders to weigh all the options.
"If there's anything we can do to change or prevent this again in the future, I think let's have it. Let's do it. Anything we can do to save a life and a child's life like that, if we can. Absolutely. As a parent, that's first and foremost," he said.
Vincent added that local first responders did all they could to try to save Sloan.
"We had our first responders there and they did the best they could," he said. "And my heart reaches out to the first responders as well, having to live through this tragedy, something that they have to deal with the rest of their careers."
He also said people need to be aware of the dangers at the beach.
"I think we've all learned from this tragedy of probably what not to do with our children on the beach and make sure that we're there and we recognize the potential threat of something like that happening again," he said. "So I think we need to educate and be aware."
