READING, Pa. — An 11-year-old boy died yesterday from lack of oxygen after a tunnel collapsed with him in it. The boy was trapped for about 44 minutes before being freed. According to the police report, the walls of the tunnel caved in while the boys were digging a tunnel in the side of the hill overlooking a pond at the West end of Liberty avenue.
When police arrived on the scene, the boy had been buried for about 12 minutes. Neighbors and passing motorists had been digging with their hands and a few shovels. Ten minutes into the rescue, the boy’s head was freed, but another collapse occurred. The boy’s body was found six feet from where the opening had been.
Neighbors and witnesses at the scene were upset, saying that they had told the property owner multiple times that the area was dangerous. They wrote him to put a fence around the entire pond area so none of the neighborhood children would drown in it since they often played in the area.
Deborah Afolabi 