Good Samaritan Saves Woman Trapped in Sinking Sand at Jersey Shore Beach

A Good Samaritan jumped into action after a woman began to sink in soft sand at a Jersey Shore beach construction site that didn’t have any warning signs posted. 

The woman was walking on a beach in Ventnor, New Jersey, around 4 p.m. Tuesday when she suddenly sank in watery sand up to her waist. Fortunately for her, a man nearby spotted her and waded through numerous sinkholes to pull her to safety. 

“Thank God that a Good Samaritan there was a man walking by that helped her,” Helene Cohen of Margate, New Jersey, told NBC10. “It’s a dangerous situation. If nobody was there, who knows what would have been.” 

A witness said the woman was shaken but did not appear to be injured. The sand was apparently loosened by construction to extend a storm water drainage pipe. Officials said the incident occurred after workers had left for the day but there weren’t any warning signs posted at the time.

“For whatever reason, at the end of the day, the workers failed to redesignate the area as unsafe,” Ventnor City Police Chief Douglas Biagi said. “An oversight which will not happen again.” 

Chief Biagi said no one involved in the incident notified police. His department later found out about the mishap from social media. 

“We would have put up temporary barricades,” he said. “In that two hour period it took us to actually get something in place, it could have been ten minutes.” 

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is managing the construction project. A spokesman called the incident unfortunate and said the subcontractor is now making sure additional caution signs are up when workers finish for the day. The spokesman also said it’s always best to avoid walking near pipes and similar structures on the beach. 

“There’s just too many things that can happen,” Chief Biagi said. 

The construction will likely finish later this week or early next week and it shouldn’t take long for the sand to become stable, according to officials.