This article has no abstract; the first 100 words appear below.

To the Editor: During the summer-recreation and beach season, we believe it is timely to underscore a potential but underrecognized safety risk associated with leisure activities in open-sand environments.1,2 We assembled a series of 52 documented fatal and nonfatal cases, occurring primarily in the past 10 years, in which persons were submerged after the collapse of a dry-sand hole excavated for recreational purposes. These cases were assembled prospectively and retrospectively and were identified from news-media accounts, personal communications, Internet searches, and the LexisNexis database. Detailed information was obtained by interviewing rescuers and witnesses, when possible. The victims ranged in . . .