Overview

• On July 9, 17-year-old Riccardo Boni suffocated when a 1.5-meter-deep sand hole he dug on a free beach in Montalto di Castro collapsed
• His younger siblings alerted their father after the collapse and bystanders with 118 emergency responders spent 40 minutes locating him before finding him unresponsive
• Carabinieri from the Tuscania company and local police have gathered evidence and interviewed witnesses to reconstruct how the sand walls gave way
• The Procura di Civitavecchia has seized the site and scheduled an autopsy as part of its negligent homicide investigation
• A 2007 study recorded more deaths from recreational sand hole collapses than from shark attacks, underscoring the hidden risks of deep beach excavations