Parents of 7-year-old who died in sand hole break their silence

the parents of a 7-year-old girl who was tragically killed when a sandhole on a Florida beach collapsed on top of her they sat down with arel RF to talk about their daughter Sloan and share an urgent warning oh my goodness good morning arel good morning to you guys this is such a vital message and Sloan was such a light Teresa and Jason say that losing their daughter Sloan to this tragic accident has turned their lives upside down now just weeks later as we head into the Spring Break season they want parents to know about this hidden Danger in the sand and they're sharing Sloan's story to save other families from similar anguish the kids were looking up you know finding seashells and playing in the sand Jason and Teresa mattingley say they were enjoying the perfect Beach day with their two young children when the unthinkable happened we go to the beach we think of water safety and this never ever once crossed my mind and of course looking now I'm like of course and so that part's really frust cuz I'm like man last month 7-year-old Sloan and her 9-year-old brother Maddox were digging in the sand at this Fort Lauderdale area Beach when things took a devastating turn the sand hole suddenly caved in on them Sloan was completely buried beneath her brother Jason you told me this happened in an instant it's kind of a blur and it's probably maybe my mind protecting itself but it just happened so fast and in my mind I had her in my my hands but the weight of the sand was too much it didn't matter that we were literally right there it was just a hole and there's nothing and then it just became chaos and horror several people frantically calling 911 the father started yelling for help like his child is caught in a hole in the sand my husband's up there and a bunch of men are digging on the beach people were desperate to help you I only knew of one um it was a woman who she I told her to call 911 and then it turned out she's a nurse once Maddox got out of our son got out of the sand and they were checking him out on the beach she stayed with him because like I wanted to be digging and so she sat with him the whole time and she was just um she so kind the family says it took nearly 20 minutes to fully get the children out of the hole several feet deep but say it felt like time Stood Still Sloan was rushed to a nearby hospital tragically she did not survive what would you say to those people who were on the beach who jumped in I'm sorry I'm so sorry you witnessed um pure horror thank you to the First Responders the hospital the everyone everyone tried their hardest unfortunately it didn't work out in our favor experts warn that sandholes even relatively small ones pose serious Danger on the beach take a group of kids ages 5 to 11 years old all varying in height the shortest 3' 7 the tallest 41 experts say any whole dug should be no deeper than the knee of the shortest person digging it in this case about 9 in was there a lifeguard on duty on the beach or was this just sort of an open public beach just um I think it's just an open public beach yeah that would be something we would like to see change if we can um again we don't place any blame on Lauderdale by the Sea in a statement to ABC News the town of Lauderdale by the SE says that they are developing a national Safety campaign telling us we will share it with as many Coastal communities as possible to help prevent another unimaginable tragedy we're also discussing how we monitor our beach a local ordinance to ban digging on our beach and the best way to honor Sloan life is all about love and it's about kisses and hugged and songs now the madingley remembering their bright and VI daughter Who Loved unicorns and Taylor Swift how do you want precious slan to be remembered as a beam of light Joy she just lived life she would come out in the morning and she would fist pump right out of bed come out and just she'd always be so happy she wasn't into like the big like take me to Disney she was like just come dance with me in the living room and so we did as other families prepare to flock to beaches for the Spring Break Season the mingle's message through their tragedy heartbreakingly clear if we can do anything to save another family from going through this whether that's signage uh Beach Patrol and strangers you know if you see something that's dangerous take the courage and say something so how do these sand holes pose a danger well experts tell us that if they're too deep the walls or the sides can cave in and the sand can quickly become compact and heavy and trap people inside the M mingle really want families to know how quickly that this can happen and they want people to avoid digging altogether and as for how they're coping they say it is truly minute to minute but I do want to show you something pretty powerful a stranger posted on their GoFundMe page this photo that he snapped in the aftermath of this horrific accident in the area where this happened and you can see it's a light stretching straight from the sky down to the sand and this image alone has just given this family so much comfort knowing that maybe it was a sign from Sloan that she's at peace so really special but there theyve they've been enveloped with so much love and they're so appreciative of that and this message is so important you were so sensitive with them great job thanks marel well hey there GMA fans Robin Roberts here thanks for checking out our YouTube channel lots of great stuff here so go on click the Subscribe button right over right over here to get more more of Awesome videos and content from GMA every day anytime we thank you for watching and we'll see you in the morning on GMA

Channel: Good Morning America

Views: 3,649,409

Keywords: ABC, Florida, GMA, News, Spring, accident, breach, break, child, daughter, hole, p_cmsid=2494279, p_vid=news-108106818, parents, sand, tragix, warning, Sloan Mattingly, sloan mattingly good morning america, sloan mattingly parents, sloan mattingly family, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, Girl dies in sand hole parents, Sand hole collapse, Sand hole collapse explained, beach safety, broward news, broward county, florida news, good morning america, abc news

Id: HHc-RSUjTPM

Length: 6min 9sec (369 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 14 2024