Althouse: "19-year-old man... was buried in sand up to his neck for two hours..."

May 11, 2011

"19-year-old man... was buried in sand up to his neck for two hours..."

... after he dug a 7-foot deep hole and — as a joke — jumped into it. It took 60 rescue workers to dig him out.

ADDED: Reminds me of the Beckett play:

51 comments:

Anonymous said...: 60?; 5/11/11, 1:55 PM
Fen said...: Murphy tempted, Darwin thwarted.; 5/11/11, 1:56 PM
Anonymous said...: Never heard of anyone getting rescued by the Teamsters before.; 5/11/11, 1:56 PM
Trooper York said...: Who pays for this?; 5/11/11, 1:57 PM
Fen said...: The article implies that jumping in was an afterthought, not intended while he was digging his 6' x 6', 7' deep hole. I'm not buying that.; 5/11/11, 1:59 PM
Henry said...: Thank God he wasn't smothered. That happened to a teenager on Cape Cod once.; 5/11/11, 2:00 PM
KCFleming said...: An old high school classmate of mine was a journeyman plumber, and dug a hole to get at some pipes outside a house.

The walls collapsed in on him and he was covered entirely. When he was pulled out, he was dead, but they got his pulse back. He was in hospital for 3 months.

He's one of those people who died and "went to the light" and all that. A changed man.; 5/11/11, 2:00 PM
Triangle Man said...: This doesn't add up. He (a member of the Austrian Olympic swim team) dug the 7' deep 6' wide hole and then jumped into it as a joke? How the hell did he dig it without being in it in the first place?; 5/11/11, 2:00 PM
Triangle Man said...: Yeah, what Fen said.; 5/11/11, 2:01 PM
coketown said...: This is an old fraternity prank called the Austrich. You find a dumb Austrian, convince him to dig a 7'x6' hole, then push him in and cover him up with only his head sticking out. Then you pee on him.

It's funny.; 5/11/11, 2:02 PM
KCFleming said...: "Who pays for this?

He should sue.

How was he to know that sand is unstable when dug like this?

Didn't the government warn him of this known danger? Haven't they seen sandcastles crumble?

It's like a bear, only if a bear was hollow and 7 feet deep.; 5/11/11, 2:03 PM
MadisonMan said...: If you dig a hole like that, and get out, to then jump back in, you will disturb the unstable sides.

And he's doing this by himself? It would take quite a long time to do it.; 5/11/11, 2:06 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: Yikes! I'd cut him some slack; that's exactly the sort of thing a young person does without having any idea how dangerous it is.; 5/11/11, 2:07 PM
Scott M said...: efore crews began to dig, the sides of the hole were boarded up to prevent them from collapsing further and to keep Maly's head from becoming buried.

Sorry, but this just seems to reek of incompetence. 60 people? Two hours? Something's not right.; 5/11/11, 2:07 PM
MadisonMan said...: And let me add that when my Son dug a deep hole on the beach a month+ ago, the guards told him to fill it in, because it was a hazard for vehicles.; 5/11/11, 2:08 PM
Scott M said...: efore crews began to dig, the sides of the hole were boarded up to prevent them from collapsing further and to keep Maly's head from becoming buried.

Sorry, but this just seems to reek of incompetence. 60 people? Two hours? Something's not right.; 5/11/11, 2:08 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: Plus, he's on an Olympic team. A nineteen year old of that athletic prowess is probably even less likely to realize that a little sand can make for a big problem.; 5/11/11, 2:09 PM
Fen said...: True. At 19 I just assumed that I was invulnerable. And that I would live forever and ever. *sob*; 5/11/11, 2:11 PM
madAsHell said...: When was the last time you went to the beach, and dug a big hole?

I have put a potato in my speedo, but never dug a hole.

He probably speaks Austrian.; 5/11/11, 2:12 PM
KCFleming said...: Grave dimensions.; 5/11/11, 2:12 PM
Trooper York said...: Wait. Is this a metaphor? Is his name Barry?; 5/11/11, 2:17 PM
Original Mike said...: 19 years old. They should have left him there and entered him for a Darwin award.; 5/11/11, 2:19 PM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: Yikes! I'd cut him some slack; that's exactly the sort of thing a young person does without having any idea how dangerous it is.

Kind of like camping in an undeveloped wilderness area part of the forest, keeping food in your tent and being surpised by bears. No way to know that this is dangerous....nope.....no way.; 5/11/11, 2:19 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "This doesn't add up. He (a member of the Austrian Olympic swim team) dug the 7' deep 6' wide hole and then jumped into it as a joke? How the hell did he dig it without being in it in the first place?"

I've been thinking about that too. My guess is, he was in it to dig it, and the walls were holding up. Then he got out, and for fun, decided to jump back in. The force of hitting the bottom at that point made the walls collapse around him.; 5/11/11, 2:19 PM
Trooper York said...: You know the same thing happened to
Brahim Zaibat.; 5/11/11, 2:20 PM
KCFleming said...: @Troop:

Ouch!!; 5/11/11, 2:22 PM
Scott M said...: ALTHOUSE’S WORST NIGHTMARE: Markdowns on Men’s Shorts.

AA, did Glenn pop in a random to poke you with that?; 5/11/11, 2:22 PM
Trooper York said...: He broke his leg when he hit the bottom.; 5/11/11, 2:25 PM
Lincolntf said...: I've been buried up to my waist in sand (at Cape Cod, in fact). On purpose, but with no idea how serious a thing it was. As you fill the sand back in, it compresses and makes moving your legs and feet next to impossible. Using your hands is brutal because you can't really bend or stretch, and it backfills quickly. I was there for at least two hours before i finally gave up and had people dig me out. Took them a good half hour. Being completely buried sounds like a death sentence.; 5/11/11, 2:28 PM
edutcher said...: Didn't the Riffs or the Apaches or someone like that do something similar to people with whom they had epistemological differences?; 5/11/11, 2:35 PM
Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...: 60?

Collective bargaining requires each rescuer to be accompanied by a support team of 29 people.; 5/11/11, 2:43 PM
Titus said...: Where does one pinch a loaf when they are stuck in a hole?; 5/11/11, 2:44 PM
Original Mike said...: In your shorts.; 5/11/11, 2:52 PM
Fen said...: How did he get 7ft down without hitting the water table? I can't dig 2 feet on the beach without it turning to mush.; 5/11/11, 3:16 PM
Scott M said...: Up on the crest of a dune?; 5/11/11, 3:22 PM
Dustin said...: This reaction seems extremely overdone. I suspect even a single person could easily get him out without a single tool, and within 15 minutes.

If it takes 60 people many hours, with boarding up the walls and all that, I think they are unionizes.; 5/11/11, 3:23 PM
Phil 314 said...: Jakub Maly - a member of the Austrian Olympic swim team training in Florida and living in Pompano Beach

Hmm, presumably little experience with beaches.

now I want to know how many members are there on the Austrian swim team. They must be the lousy skiers.; 5/11/11, 4:08 PM
B said...: Let me fix it.

'19-year-old troll was buried up to his neck for two hours after he dug a 7-foot deep hole and jumped into it.'

Jeremy and/or J in about every 4th Althouse post.; 5/11/11, 4:12 PM
B said...: madAsHell said...

'I have put a potato in my speedo, but never dug a hole.'

If you want to make the right impression make sure you put the potato in the front, not the back.; 5/11/11, 4:17 PM
traditionalguy said...: Waterboarding move over. We have another torture method to try out now.; 5/11/11, 4:47 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "AA, did Glenn pop in a random to poke you with that?"

He has Amazon posts scheduled throughout the day. You can set up posts in advance, so he's not really popping in.; 5/11/11, 5:11 PM
A. Shmendrik said...: Note to self:

Do not jump in holes.; 5/11/11, 5:12 PM
Greg's Blog said...: I am trying to figure out why it took 60 people to extracate the young man. One would have thought four or five able bodied men could have completed the job in 10 minutes. Maybe I am missing something.; 5/11/11, 5:20 PM
The Dude said...: I have dug plenty of holes in all sorts of earth. Rule one of excavation is - be aware that the walls can collapse on you. Rule two is - hire someone else to dig the hole.

Trooper wins the thread.

WV: wovizami - you wove it, now you have to wear it.; 5/11/11, 6:10 PM
Toad Trend said...: Imagine digging the hole yourself, then realizing, 'Oh Shit', how do I get out of it...

I think he was trying to get out of the hole and the thing caved.

He dug too deep. Maybe he had help trying to get out...can't imagine how you could claw out of a hole in the sand with the claimed dimensions without at least a stepladder and a board/plank.; 5/11/11, 6:20 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "I am trying to figure out why it took 60 people to extracate the young man. One would have thought four or five able bodied men could have completed the job in 10 minutes. Maybe I am missing something."

They were trying not to kill him.; 5/11/11, 6:53 PM
rcocean said...: They were trying not to get sued and/or injure him in anyway.

He's just lucky he didn't dig an 8'5' hole.; 5/11/11, 7:32 PM
Toad Trend said...: @AA

"They were trying not to kill him."

I agree with RC Ocean.

In the back of their minds were the legion of lawyers that lurk, waiting to pounce on any miscue.

Killing him was not on their minds. No, the digging miscreant created his own grave.

CYA is alive and well due to ambulance chasing.; 5/11/11, 7:38 PM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: Every summer we would go out one night, dig a hole, and bury the life guard's chair so that, instead of the seat being 6' off the ground, it was beach chair height.

The next day we would be good samaritans and help dig it out.; 5/11/11, 8:53 PM
Wince said...: As a kid I let myself be buried in a much smaller hole in the sand.

Once in, the total immobilization completely freaked me out and I will never forget the sensation of helplessness.; 5/11/11, 9:39 PM
zbogwan99 said...: A fool is a fool is a fool! Lucky this kid didn't suffocate.; 5/11/11, 10:19 PM