| Name | Age | Sex | Injuries | Injured areas |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carlson, Shawn | 14 | Male | Fatality | Not recorded |
| Mcgovern, Steve | 12 | Male | Not recorded | Not recorded |
On Monday afternoon December 29, seven kids were playing at the base of a cliff adjacent to the Quail Hollow Road near Ben Lomand, Santa Cruz County, California. About 200 feet up the near-vertical sandstone cliff and about five feet from the top is Cat's Cave, a rock shelter about three feet in depth. There had been little rainfall in preceding weeks but fog swept the ridgeline above in the mornings and the ground was damp. The cliff and cave were a site for fossil collection.
At 4 p.m., two of the youths, Shawn Carlson (14) and Steve McGovern (12) climbed up to Cat's Cave and began using a claw hammer to batter their names into the sandstone overhead. At about 4:15 there was a rumble as the "front upper portion of the cave slid off" (2). Carlson was buried completely and McGovern up to his shoulders.
The youngsters below were alerted by McGovern's cries. Three climbed up to assist McGovern and two ran down to get help from a nearby house. A call went to the Ben Lomand Fire Department and a rescue squad was at the site in ten minutes. After five minutes of hand removal of debris both victims had been freed. McGovern was uninjured. Carlson, who had been under two feet of debris for 15 minutes had no pulse and was not breathing. He was placed in a Stokes litter, lifted over the cliff top, carried to an ambulance, and transported to Community Hospital in Santa Cruz. Carlson was declared dead on arrival.
ANALYSIS: The dampness combined with unstable conditions created by the fossil collection possibly contributed to the collapse but the foolish activity of pounding the ceiling of a cave is what cost Carlson his life. This is only a shelter cave but the entrance area of any cave should be judged potentially unstable due to weathering and biological activity. Furthermore, unstable ceilings exist in some parts of many caves- treat such areas with great respect.