8 Comments

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  Speed at 07:32 AM JST - 11th July

  Exactamundo! I thought the same thing when no one was being held accountable for this horrible death. This "not-guilty" verdict absolutely shocked me when it came through a few years ago. The engineers made a beach made up of human devouring quicksand! SOMEONE is responsible for this little girl's death.

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  mindovermatter at 08:23 AM JST - 11th July

  Miho Kingetsu died May 26, 2002, at age 5, five months after she was trapped under the sand at Okura beach

  Five months later....?

  There's something really big missing from this story....

  So she was walking with her dad and became trapped....? AND nobody found her for 5 months...? OR is the JN fire department that slow at performing rescues?

  Come on JT, so more details here or provide a link to the real story. thanks...

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  Notginger at 08:54 AM JST - 11th July

  I think JT just likes to whet our appetites, by giving us just an appetiser to a news story and making us find detailed content on other websites.

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  smartacus at 09:15 AM JST - 11th July

  As I understand it, the girl probably died five months later of injuries suffered when she fell into the hole.

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  lipscombe at 09:47 AM JST - 11th July

  good

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  timorborder at 09:59 AM JST - 11th July

  I don't know, however, this girl might have suffered a lack of oxygen at the scene of this accident that resulted in her falling into a vegitative state. The 5-month period might have been between this point in time and when they decided to turn off the life support machinery. Somebody else might like to comment.

  Furthermore, I remember seeing footage of the accident site just after the accident happened, the argument was that a concrete breakwater-like structure was incorrectly sited resulting in sand traps occuring on the protected side of the breakwater (the side not exposed to wind/water action). Someone mentioned that this girl stepped into one of these sand traps (which had developed into a maze right along the breakwater) and she was essentially swallowed up.

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  gogogo at 10:46 AM JST - 11th July

  How does a beach cave in?

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  timorborder at 11:11 AM JST - 11th July

  How does a beach cave in? Read my post above.

  If you set up a barrier to wind and wave action in the wrong place, on the leeward side of the barrier (the side protected by the barrier), sandtraps can naturally occur. To put it simply, a sandtrap in this case means a body of sand under which there is a pocket or pockets of air. Once something treads on the surface of the sand, the sand cannot support its own weight and collapses into a concave structure. Moreover, this collapsing action can be exaggerated to the point that the elipse of the concave starts to get sucked into the concave itself (a vortex effect), resulting in the burial of whatever is trapped within the concave.

  To make it easier to understand, think about certain species of spider in desert regions who make a concave in the sand to trap their prey. Once the prey fall into the trap, they cannot get out because the elipse and surfaces of the concave are perfectly set to collapse under their own weight if disturbed. The spider waits (covered) at the apex of the concave to either capture the prey or wait until it tires of fatigue (trying to get out).

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