Father rescues 2-year-old son trapped in sand that collapsed at Sea Girt beach
The boy was transported to Jersey Shore University hospital for observation. He is expected to be OK.
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A father narrowly avoided a beachfront tragedy over the weekend after sand collapsed on his son at Sea Girt beach.
Police say the family was enjoying the nice weather Saturday morning and the 2-year-old was playing on the beach when a pile of sand collapsed on top of him. They say the boy’s father was able to get his son out of the sand within 2-3 minutes.
Officials say the boy was conscious and alert when the police arrived. He was transported to Jersey Shore University hospital for observation. He is expected to be OK.
“The primary concern of the borough of Sea Girt is the safety and security of the residents, the beachgoers and our visitors. That area will be closed until it is deemed safe by inspectors from the Army Corps of Engineers and Weeks Marine,” said borough police chief Justin Macko.
News 12 New Jersey spoke to resident Kathleen Melli who said there has been a lot of activity lately in the area, including a sand restoration project.
"For the past several weeks, there's been a sand restoration project going on where they pump in sand from another area, I believe it's Sandy Hook. They bring it down here via tanker or it looks like a tanker, and they pump it on the beach to rebuild the missing sand," Melli said.
Macko said the restoration project was supposed to be completed last week and Neptune Beach was open to the public on Saturday. He says he is meeting with the engineers and contractors to better understand what happened.
There's no word on whether the sand restoration project had anything to do with the incident that occurred on Saturday.
The beach area has been blocked off for public safety. The borough’s website says officials planned to monitor the sand movement over the weeks to come.
