Man who died one of the most agonising deaths imaginable spent 17 days trapped in an underground cave

Dangers of sand cave-ins in spotlight after Ocean City death

On January 30, 1925, Floyd Collins entered Sand Cave in Kentucky alone, searching for a new discovery that could become a tourist attraction. Deep inside a narrow, twisting tunnel, he slipped headfirst. A falling rock crushed and trapped his foot, leaving him wedged in a passage barely wider than his body — unable to move forward or backward. Despite popular diagrams, no rescue shaft existed at the time. Rescuers had to dig one from the surface while Collins remained trapped beyond multiple dead