re: Today's nightmare scenario: Cemetery worker buried alive in New York grave mishap

quote:

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Assume that one yard of dirt weighing perhaps 2,500 pounds, falls off a trench lip six feet overhead. It takes about 0.6 seconds for the dirt to fall six feet and we would expect it to reach a speed of about 20 feet per second or 14 miles per hour when it strikes the worker.

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Yeah but while it happens fast it likely isn't absolutely immediately, like a dump truck. If it was a 7 foot grave and the guy is say 5'6" only then his hands should be just about sticking out of the ground.

It would take some extra bad luck to have it not only cave on you, but cave to the point you couldn't stick your arms up and have your companion help you out.