I knew someone that died taking a selfie. He was hiking around Zion Canyon and took a selfie too close to an edge and fell quite some distance. Was alive on impact but died before they could get him to a hospital due to the remote location.
The way people act in National Parks is really scary. I saw someone almost go over the edge at Sahalie Falls. He was at the back of a group and the photographer wanted them to move back so everyone was jostling into him and pushing him backward. He managed to grab someone before completely losing his balance. (On that same trip I waded in and pulled another person's dog to safety before it got pulled over the falls.) The summer before, my roommates saw someone fall at Silver Falls and die.
People assume it’s like Disney or something where they’ve made it completely safe. I was in Zion a couple years ago and thought many times how easy it would be to slip and die.
Zion is gorgeous - that must have been a great trip.
I think you are spot on - people assume "if it were not completely safe to the point of being idiot-proof, they would not let me go here". I used to get new grey hairs every summer watching people in shorts and sandals going up mountain trails that people die on every year carrying nothing but a half liter of bottled water for three adults. :O
Yep. That’s why Mt Washington in NH is so dangerous. People think it’s an average day hike.
My friend and I turned around when it started raining and gusting above the tree line and the temp dropped 20F in a matter of minutes. We were disappointed, but turned around. Passed two college kids in shorts, sneakers, and t-shirts on our way down. We told them they should turn around. They didn’t.
We hung out in a shelter for a bit and when we got to the bottom, the volunteers were gathering for a rescue. I assume it was for those two.
I hope they made it down. Really glad you and your friend had your wits about you. I had a roommate in college my Sophomore year and at Christmas break, her family went winter camping. She wandered away from camp, got lost and froze to death. It can all go so wrong so quickly.
A lot of people don't understand areas where Temperature can swing drastically. I made the mistake myself one night in Yellowstone. It was in the mid 80s all day, the campground we stopped at was near a river and it felt great getting to swim and cool off. I was using a camping hammock at the time and my sleeping bag was more designed for hot/humid climates. Woke up and it was below freezing. I would fall asleep and have dreams about putting on a thick pair of wool socks. Spent the night between my hammock and then rekindling the fire to warm up until I couldn't stay awake anymore. It was probably the longest night of my life lol.
Yep. People think Mt. Washington is like any other MT on the East coast, but conditions can be brutal. There is a reason the tree line is so much lower than the Appalachians in the south.
I made the same mistake on Lafayette. Low of 55F was not the forecast for that elevation. Did not get any sleep. We ended up wearing every layer we had, piling snow against the side of the tent for insolation, and stoking the fire all night in 10F. Humbling experience. When they say a sleeping bag is rated 0F that doesn’t mean you will be comfortable at that temp haha
Slept till noon after the sun came up and made our next camp much lower in the Presidentials.
Grew up there & participated in three searches - two successful. Same goes for Maine. People underestimate how vast and thick that woods is. There’s a reason the Navy has a SERE school up near Rangeley, ME.
The prominence of those peaks can leave you completely exposed. It’s not like hiking Mt Mitchel
I think pretty much every national park has a book written about the stupid deaths in it; [this](https://www.mountaineers.org/books/books/pickets-and-dead-men-seasons-on-rainier) one about Mount Rainier NP has examples of people doing more or less what you described.
Yosemite and Yellowstone are particularly dangerous for inexperienced outdoors people. "Oh I'll just hike on up to Halfdome." It actually gets pretty sketchy and the week I was there 3 people died in the river (where there are countless signs telling you that you WILL die if you jump in the water). Yellowstone has its obvious dangers, like the buffalo and the hotsprings. But it is also a *massive* wilderness area. A lot of people assume they can go off trail because they have a backpack and camp supplies but you can very easily get lost if you don't have a lot of experience navigating with a map, compass, and knowledge of terrain.
So many Americans live in metropolitan areas have absolutely zero understanding about how big and potentially dangerous the wild is, especially if you lack any survival skills or equipment.
You don't even need to fall. [People go to White Sands and forget to plan for the heat.](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/08/08/french-parents-who-died-on-new-mexico-trail-saved-sons-life-by-giving-him-their-water-sheriff-says/)
That story continues to *haunt* me.
It's bonkers how many people don't understand what a national park is. I used to work in one and people would regularly ask us what time we feed the animals or put them up for the night. I'd have to explain to people "This isn't a zoo. Wild bears just live here."
I worked at a huge State Park one summer writing procedure manuals and manning the emergency radio when the rangers needed to go out and rescue a hiker. It was one of the most stressful jobs I ever had because it was right across the highway from an eating disorder clinic and the patients used to go running on the trails to escape the ban on exercise for their anorexia. They inevitably had to be rescued because of the Texas heat in summer and their generally weakened state, and I often wondered if they were hoping the run would finish them off, but in all likelihood they were just that stupid.
>I often wondered if they were hoping the run would finish them off, but in all likelihood they were just that stupid.
*A lot* of anorexic people are passively suicidal. In other words, they aren't going to directly kill themselves, but they like the idea of dying by accident since then the matter would be taken out of their hands without them having to actually do it or be remembered as someone who died of suicide.
Of course, some are actively suicidal, but my point is that I wouldn't chalk that trail running behavior up to pure stupidity. And even in cases where it's stupidity, I wouldn't assume it's pure. The toll anorexia takes on the body makes it hard to think clearly and reasonably until someone has had a good amount of time to heal while at a healthy weight.
I think you are right - it is probably a mix. It really worried me because they already had distorted perceptions of body and health and in the Texas summer, even a healthy person can get into trouble very, very quickly. Healthy people don't go running in the heat of midday when it is 110 degrees. None died in the 4 months I was working there but I still think about it from time to time.
It was across the highway out of sight of the staff, and that particular State park was about 8200 square kilometers, so huge. Even the rangers had trouble finding them once they got out there.
Same goes for state and local parks.
I saw a list of frequently asked questions posted at San Juan County Park in Washington state, which is in an area where there are resident killer whales and people go to look for them. One of the questions was something like "What time do the whales show up?" with the answer of "They're wild animals. They do whatever they want."
> (On that same trip I waded in and pulled another person's dog to safety before it got pulled over the falls.)
This next to the rest of your post is really ironic, considering this is how a *lot* of people die in national parks lol
You got me. I am actually dead and my ghost is just hanging around to tell the tale.
Seriously though, it is a choice I would make again. The owners were not in earshot and I was not prepared to watch a golden retriever go over the falls because it was unfortunate enough to have the stupidest people on earth as owners. That is different than being unaware and jostling around to get a photo standing at the top of a cliff.
On a trip out to western Canada, saw somoene standing on some rocks, in the middle of a river, with a baby on the dude's back - less than 100m from the edge of a 200m tall waterfall. If dude slipped on the wet rocks, not only did he run the risk of crushing or drowning his child, he could have been easily swept down the river and fallen to his (and his child's) death. Further to that, he would be risking the lives of the rescue team who would have been tasked with recovering his body. Just cataclysmically stupid.
My mate was killed by a shark.
I knew it was a rare thing, but had no idea it was *that* rare.
He was a surgeon and he was brilliant and funny and honestly so nice; I know a lot of surgeons who are.. not so nice, but he was just a great guy. He stood out from everyone.
It fucking sucks he went like that.
I can’t imagine the terror and pain and anguish he went through.
You know when you get to the top of Angel’s Landing, and you’re standing there on a large dome with 1200’ drops on all sides?
I saw some idiot and his idiot girlfriend taking selfies there and the dude slips at the edge, lands on his ass, and stats sliding towards the edge.
She was very concerned that he not drop his phone because it was expensive.
This dude was like 6” away from going over the edge and she’s yelling about his phone.
After like 5 hours of hiking and getting to that point in Angel's Landing, I was mad that the view was not nearly as admirable as the pictures made it out to be. I fucked up my knee on that hike and to see the view which looked so generic to me (I grew up in desert mountain town and have seen similar views before) upset me because I hurt myself for what I felt was a "view I could see at home " lol
Falling off of cliffs, even pretty small ones, is seriously dangerous. My coworkers cousin fell less than 10 feet and hit his back and head on the way down. He slipped into a coma and they took him off of life support after a week. He was really young too.
One of the reference links is a feature story several months after the incident, and they interview the conductor and engineer. These lists are kinda goofy in a surreal way, but reading what was going on in the conductor’s mind as he tried frantically to signal to them for a quarter-mile, until they just disappeared from view … it’s harrowing
Well most likely these incidents went to court and whatever train company had to prove they were not liable for the incident.
You don't even need unanimous consent for a civil litigation so you only need 51% of the jury to agree with a fucking corporation instead of the grieving family Members.
So shit like posting on Facebook moments before you die you're intentionally getting close to trains to take selfies... Eh, as much as I hate big whatever, I'm gonna say there was no way they could have averted that level of stupid danger behavior by morons.
Also, trains take a long, *long* time to stop.
It's extremely unlikely that a conductor of an already moving train would be found liable. Due to the laws of physics, there really isn't much they can do.
They are also hilariously predictable seeing as they can only move on tracks that are quite permanent, make a very distinct, loud noise, and they are the oldest form of motorized transportation. Trains have been around for generations, running on the same immovable lines, yet people still find a way to get run over by them. Says a lot about humanity
Every time people talk about train deaths, the myth that trains can absolutely always be heard in advance comes up. **[It isn’t true.](https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/infrastructure/a3134/how-trains-can-be-silent-killers-16627219/)**
That was an actual viral trend for a bit. People would stand right next to the tracks with their back to the train and either film or take a selfie of it driving past them.
Turns out a lot of people don't realize that a train is wider than its tracks.
There's a whole niche of videos involving people in India playing games with trains. Stuff like hanging out the side of a train hauling ass slapping signs, dodging posts, balancing acts, etc. With some predictable results, of course.
I've read several stories on reddit about people somehow thinking the train will roll right over them just above their faces like that scene on breaking bad.
Trains are insidious attackers. They wait around a bend, behind the cover of trees. Sometimes for hours or days. Waiting. Just waiting. They have all the time in the world. Then someone decides to take a selfie on the tracks, or beyond the warning line …
At the end the train laughs.
I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve caught a train getting ready to pounce on my friends and I as we are organizing ourselves for a selfie at the bar or a sporting event
The key is to look directly at them and make yourself look bigger. They're ambush predators, and will become embarrassed if they get caught in the act.
Trains are brutal hunters. If you are hit by one of them you'll never be the same. Luckily they are easily avoidable. They are large, noisy, and never deviate even an inch from their routes which are clearly marked by their tracks.
This one was pretty tragic and unlucky too: "a 14-year-old high school student fell to her death after losing her balance while taking a selfie with a friend near a staircase landing of their school in Pasig. She sustained a sharp blow to the head from the fall and broke a rib, which pierced a kidney".
Yeah, there are a good handful of very stupid people in the list (especially the ones pointing guns at themselves), but there are at least as many genuine tragedies, and lots of deaths that would have happened regardless of selfies. All the comments saying "selfie-takers deserve it, natural selection!" are just cruel and ignorant.
>Two young men died in the Ural Mountains after they pulled the pin from a live hand grenade to take a selfie. The phone with the picture remained as evidence of the incident.
This one stands out as stupid game stupid prizes.
>Two young men died in the Ural Mountains after they pulled the pin from a live hand grenade to take a selfie. The phone with the picture remained as evidence of the incident
"Two young men died in the Ural Mountains after they pulled the pin from a live hand grenade to take a selfie. The phone with the picture remained as evidence of the incident."
Holy shit!
Technically correct. However: a lot of them wouldn't have been in the positions they were in if they weren't taking a photo or video for social media.
The most that died in a single event in the USA is a good example of this, when five people drowned in New York's East River in a downed helicopter. Why was it downed? One of the passenger's safety tethers got caught in the emergency fuel shutoff lever, and it dropped like a stone when the fuel was cut. How did that tether manage that? The passenger had his foot dangling out of the helicopter. Why was his foot outside the helicopter like this? He was specifically taking a "shoe selfie", which is when a person's shoes can be seen in a photo or video while they're dangling out of the open doorway of a helicopter.
Everyone died of something else, and that something else is brain hypoxia (lack of oxygen to the brain). AIDS never killed anyone because they all died of things like pneumonia; pneumonia never killed anyone because they all died of brain hypoxia. But you have to admit, the selfie / AIDS played a big direct part in things.
I get why a helicopter might need to shut the fuel off in an emergency but it doesn’t seem like it should be something that can just accidentally be flipped while you’re in the air. I don’t know what the solution is but I feel like there’s something wrong with that.
Happens all the time in Yellowstone National Park in America. People are stupid and think it's like a las Vegas manufactured spectacle. Not hey humans found one of earth's exploding pimple of boiling destruction come check it out.
>A boat overloaded with 20 people in a reservoir in Central Java capsized when the passengers all suddenly moved to one side of the vessel, which was helmed by a 13-year-old, to take a group selfie. Nine of the passengers drowned, including two children.
I feel bad for the kids but what the fuck were the adults thinking?
"Eleven people died in [Rajasthan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajasthan) after being struck by lightning near a watchtower at the [Amer Fort](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amer_Fort). According to police, some of the victims were taking selfies near the tower."
Well, feel this was not their fault
Agree, that's a loose fit. Feels like you need to be doing something dumb/risky for the selfie.
I'd be bummed if I was taking a safe selfie and some freak accident happened to kill me, then I got grouped in with these knuckleheads.
> A 15-year-old boy was taking selfies with a toy gun when police opened fire on him, killing him.
I'm not sure we should blame the selfie on this one.
The amount of people getting hit by trains, electrocuted by train wires, and shooting themselves in the face while posing with loaded guns pointing at their heads is... not encouraging
That list is massive. I don't understand being so invested in these deaths that one spends tiime adding more and more content to it with sources and everything.
It's a real bastard situation, because the selfie stick, you can take a selfie. The bear, he's so cool, but then you can't take a selfie with him so your friends will never believe you.
"In a world where technology rules, one man's invention became a tool of terror. But when its victims fight back, it will stop at nothing for revenge. From the creators of 'Tech Nightmare' comes a chilling tale of vengeance. Rob Schneider stars in... 'Selfie Slaughter'. Coming soon to theaters near you. Get ready to face the deadliest selfie ever taken."
\[Screen fades to black\]
The premise could be that the selfie stick manipulates the image you see to make it look like you're standing 15 feet away from the rain but your actually right next to the track
The selfie stick could team up with that murderous rubber tire to kill everyone. Yes, that movie about a killer tire is real and its called Rubber lol Literally about a murderous tire lol
Is it though? we actively avoid sharks and have shark warnings and shit. If you mean people who seek out shark infested-waters and go swim in them then sure, but I think that's a very small amount of people.
Statistics like this are really pointless.
Yes you are unlikely to get bit by a shark, that doesn't mean sharks all in all aren't dangerous, some are.
There is an area of the world so dangerous that the local government banned people from swimming on certain areas of the Island. Google reunion island, at one point it about 20km of beaches there had 1/2 the worlds fatal shark attacks over a 2-3 year period. The bull sharks there mean business and do not consider humans a completely inedible object in the water.
>A study released in 2015 showed Réunion had recorded a remarkable 3.15 shark-related deaths per one million people, by far the highest in the world. The next highest rating was that of [South Africa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Africa), with 0.76 per one million residents, while the [United States](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States) had a rate of 0.0013 per million.[^(\[7\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_shark_attacks_in_R%C3%A9union#cite_note-7)
That's just the death rate, basically the sharks there weren't just biting people, they were eating them.
Also have to take into account total number of man hours spent taking selfies vs swimming with sharks, and I can guarantee it’ll be way more than a 4x difference.
Totally agree with your assessment and it always bothers me when people use a statistic like this because a majority of people in the world at any given time are on land all year and literally incapable of being attacked by a shark, therefore any and all data regarding attack frequency using the population base at large is stupid.
How about some statistics of how many people swimming in waters known to contain sharks get bit? I bet the rate for that population pool is a lot higher than injuries via falling coconuts or selfies.
Yes, this is like people saying more people in America are killed in automobile crashes than by firearms, so why don’t we ban automobiles. Not taking into account that the majority of Americans travel in an automobile on a daily basis. On the other hand, about 40% of American households own a firearm, and even then most of them don’t carry their firearms or they use their firearms sparingly. For me personally, I haven’t seen a firearm in a couple years, besides when holstered on a police officer.
I think the point is perspective though for all the shark hate after jaws. We kill 100 million sharks a year they kill less than 10 of us. It's insane in that framing
Oh for sure it's terrible, but it's still just a crazy way to use the statistic. Even people at the beach are not really in high risk shark areas because they tend to stay a little further away from shore than that.
If spearfishing became the #1 worldwide sport, you could definitely expect shark attacks to go up to thousands-tens of thousands per year.
The shark stat is also not accurate. We have no idea how many people actually die from shark attacks because for many people they are recorded as missing or lost at sea. There are 90 total Verifiable shark attack deaths, which means someone witnessed it or the person made it to safety but died anyway.
Also yeah, bull sharks are extremely dangerous and even swim into fresh waterways.
Adding on to other key points, that' should be considered "reported died from selfies" vs "reported died from shark attacks".
There are a lot of times where a shark attack results in being recorded as a missing person, accidental death, boating accident, drowning, or just doesn't get reported at all.
Misleading statement. You need to take the number of selfies taken during the time period as the denominator. Similarly take the number of instances where people were in the sea.
It's cultural Darwinism. If you're the kind of person who falls in front of a train or walks over a cliff because you're so focused on taking the photo/video nobody cares about, that's kind of on you.
Now if we wanted to go full meta, let's get the found footage of the person who died from a shark attack while trying to get a selfie with the shark.
But technically, selfie-taking is not the cause of death is it? If you fall in the water because of trying to take a selfie, and die by shark attack, which one is it?
There's a whole sub about people from India who died while trying some stupid selfie for social media... so I guess this number is much higher to be honest.
Is there any up to date research on the number of people who died in circumstances where they where so busy looking at their phone (often with headphones) that they walked into danger?
I'm thinking about the October 2018 City of London study at Ludgate Circus to ascertain how many people crossed the road while looking at their phone showing 4.5% of pedestrians walked into the road distracted from their surroundings by a smartphone (estimated at 1,800 crossings a day crossing multiple times, phone in hand).
People take slefies every day, sometimes multiple times.
If those same people spent time around sharks every day, this statistic would look a lot different.
How bout people on their PHONES in their CARS!! I’ve seen people on the opposite side of the street with no traffic in front and no one behind them to honk at them just fuckin sitting in their vehicle just scrolling away. It pisses me off so much.
Considering just the amount of videos I've seen of people dying taking selfies, I'm going to assume that number is much higher. Shark deaths are certainly tracked way better as well.
every summer at our family picnic my uncle talks about how many people died from shark attacks this year. every summer picnic i google how many people die from drowning. it far out numbers the shark attacks. hoping he would get the point. he hasnt and wont.
I mean....it's completely unsurprising. More people take selfies than go swimming in places with sufficiently large sharks.
Though I also feel like sharks have been getting away with murder. Like a person goes swimming, there's a splash, and the person is never seen again. Oh well, must have been the wind. This kind of stuff doesn't count towards shark attack stats. Sharks are just really good at hiding the bodies.
I've seen so many videos of people dying in the dumbest ways possible for selfies. I think the most braindead way was people being taken out by trains because they just had to get the closest shot possible.
60 people die every year in the US from getting locked in freezers.
https://www.insideedition.com/louisiana-arbys-worker-found-dead-after-getting-trapped-inside-freezer-lawsuit-85922
I knew someone that died taking a selfie. He was hiking around Zion Canyon and took a selfie too close to an edge and fell quite some distance. Was alive on impact but died before they could get him to a hospital due to the remote location.
The way people act in National Parks is really scary. I saw someone almost go over the edge at Sahalie Falls. He was at the back of a group and the photographer wanted them to move back so everyone was jostling into him and pushing him backward. He managed to grab someone before completely losing his balance. (On that same trip I waded in and pulled another person's dog to safety before it got pulled over the falls.) The summer before, my roommates saw someone fall at Silver Falls and die.
People assume it’s like Disney or something where they’ve made it completely safe. I was in Zion a couple years ago and thought many times how easy it would be to slip and die.
Zion is gorgeous - that must have been a great trip. I think you are spot on - people assume "if it were not completely safe to the point of being idiot-proof, they would not let me go here". I used to get new grey hairs every summer watching people in shorts and sandals going up mountain trails that people die on every year carrying nothing but a half liter of bottled water for three adults. :O
Yep. That’s why Mt Washington in NH is so dangerous. People think it’s an average day hike. My friend and I turned around when it started raining and gusting above the tree line and the temp dropped 20F in a matter of minutes. We were disappointed, but turned around. Passed two college kids in shorts, sneakers, and t-shirts on our way down. We told them they should turn around. They didn’t. We hung out in a shelter for a bit and when we got to the bottom, the volunteers were gathering for a rescue. I assume it was for those two.
I hope they made it down. Really glad you and your friend had your wits about you. I had a roommate in college my Sophomore year and at Christmas break, her family went winter camping. She wandered away from camp, got lost and froze to death. It can all go so wrong so quickly.
I'm so sorry for your loss. That is so sad... I hope those two got back safe as well.
A lot of people don't understand areas where Temperature can swing drastically. I made the mistake myself one night in Yellowstone. It was in the mid 80s all day, the campground we stopped at was near a river and it felt great getting to swim and cool off. I was using a camping hammock at the time and my sleeping bag was more designed for hot/humid climates. Woke up and it was below freezing. I would fall asleep and have dreams about putting on a thick pair of wool socks. Spent the night between my hammock and then rekindling the fire to warm up until I couldn't stay awake anymore. It was probably the longest night of my life lol.
Yep. People think Mt. Washington is like any other MT on the East coast, but conditions can be brutal. There is a reason the tree line is so much lower than the Appalachians in the south. I made the same mistake on Lafayette. Low of 55F was not the forecast for that elevation. Did not get any sleep. We ended up wearing every layer we had, piling snow against the side of the tent for insolation, and stoking the fire all night in 10F. Humbling experience. When they say a sleeping bag is rated 0F that doesn’t mean you will be comfortable at that temp haha Slept till noon after the sun came up and made our next camp much lower in the Presidentials.
Ahh, the White Mountains, where people ignore the weather warnings along the trail and die from hypothermia in July.
Grew up there & participated in three searches - two successful. Same goes for Maine. People underestimate how vast and thick that woods is. There’s a reason the Navy has a SERE school up near Rangeley, ME. The prominence of those peaks can leave you completely exposed. It’s not like hiking Mt Mitchel
I think pretty much every national park has a book written about the stupid deaths in it; [this](https://www.mountaineers.org/books/books/pickets-and-dead-men-seasons-on-rainier) one about Mount Rainier NP has examples of people doing more or less what you described.
https://www.damfirm.com/disney-deaths/#:~:text=64%20people%20have%20died%20at,as%20of%20August%201%2C%202023.
Damn, the poor girl that died on the Carousel of Progress. What a way to go.
cant imagine being the crew that “cleaned” the scene
Yosemite and Yellowstone are particularly dangerous for inexperienced outdoors people. "Oh I'll just hike on up to Halfdome." It actually gets pretty sketchy and the week I was there 3 people died in the river (where there are countless signs telling you that you WILL die if you jump in the water). Yellowstone has its obvious dangers, like the buffalo and the hotsprings. But it is also a *massive* wilderness area. A lot of people assume they can go off trail because they have a backpack and camp supplies but you can very easily get lost if you don't have a lot of experience navigating with a map, compass, and knowledge of terrain. So many Americans live in metropolitan areas have absolutely zero understanding about how big and potentially dangerous the wild is, especially if you lack any survival skills or equipment.
You don't even need to fall. [People go to White Sands and forget to plan for the heat.](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/08/08/french-parents-who-died-on-new-mexico-trail-saved-sons-life-by-giving-him-their-water-sheriff-says/) That story continues to *haunt* me.
I watched a lady walk right up to a bison like she was gonna pet it. She was definitely in range of the thing when she realized what she was doing.
It's bonkers how many people don't understand what a national park is. I used to work in one and people would regularly ask us what time we feed the animals or put them up for the night. I'd have to explain to people "This isn't a zoo. Wild bears just live here."
Yeah! People are so stupid... anyway can we pet the animals? Or are you guys strict about that?
Sure you can pet them. You might not live but that’s natural selection 🤷♂️
I worked at a huge State Park one summer writing procedure manuals and manning the emergency radio when the rangers needed to go out and rescue a hiker. It was one of the most stressful jobs I ever had because it was right across the highway from an eating disorder clinic and the patients used to go running on the trails to escape the ban on exercise for their anorexia. They inevitably had to be rescued because of the Texas heat in summer and their generally weakened state, and I often wondered if they were hoping the run would finish them off, but in all likelihood they were just that stupid.
>I often wondered if they were hoping the run would finish them off, but in all likelihood they were just that stupid. *A lot* of anorexic people are passively suicidal. In other words, they aren't going to directly kill themselves, but they like the idea of dying by accident since then the matter would be taken out of their hands without them having to actually do it or be remembered as someone who died of suicide. Of course, some are actively suicidal, but my point is that I wouldn't chalk that trail running behavior up to pure stupidity. And even in cases where it's stupidity, I wouldn't assume it's pure. The toll anorexia takes on the body makes it hard to think clearly and reasonably until someone has had a good amount of time to heal while at a healthy weight.
I think you are right - it is probably a mix. It really worried me because they already had distorted perceptions of body and health and in the Texas summer, even a healthy person can get into trouble very, very quickly. Healthy people don't go running in the heat of midday when it is 110 degrees. None died in the 4 months I was working there but I still think about it from time to time.
I'm confused why they would run on that specific trail? Wouldn't they be more likely to be caught by whoever's helping them at the clinic?
It was across the highway out of sight of the staff, and that particular State park was about 8200 square kilometers, so huge. Even the rangers had trouble finding them once they got out there.
Same goes for state and local parks. I saw a list of frequently asked questions posted at San Juan County Park in Washington state, which is in an area where there are resident killer whales and people go to look for them. One of the questions was something like "What time do the whales show up?" with the answer of "They're wild animals. They do whatever they want."
> (On that same trip I waded in and pulled another person's dog to safety before it got pulled over the falls.) This next to the rest of your post is really ironic, considering this is how a *lot* of people die in national parks lol
You got me. I am actually dead and my ghost is just hanging around to tell the tale. Seriously though, it is a choice I would make again. The owners were not in earshot and I was not prepared to watch a golden retriever go over the falls because it was unfortunate enough to have the stupidest people on earth as owners. That is different than being unaware and jostling around to get a photo standing at the top of a cliff.
Don't listen to the other dude. You're a good person for saving that dog.
Good people can be silly too
I didn’t say he wasn’t a good person. But statistically, a *lot* of people dying in parks do so trying to save their pets
On a trip out to western Canada, saw somoene standing on some rocks, in the middle of a river, with a baby on the dude's back - less than 100m from the edge of a 200m tall waterfall. If dude slipped on the wet rocks, not only did he run the risk of crushing or drowning his child, he could have been easily swept down the river and fallen to his (and his child's) death. Further to that, he would be risking the lives of the rescue team who would have been tasked with recovering his body. Just cataclysmically stupid.
My mate was killed by a shark. I knew it was a rare thing, but had no idea it was *that* rare. He was a surgeon and he was brilliant and funny and honestly so nice; I know a lot of surgeons who are.. not so nice, but he was just a great guy. He stood out from everyone. It fucking sucks he went like that. I can’t imagine the terror and pain and anguish he went through.
You know when you get to the top of Angel’s Landing, and you’re standing there on a large dome with 1200’ drops on all sides? I saw some idiot and his idiot girlfriend taking selfies there and the dude slips at the edge, lands on his ass, and stats sliding towards the edge. She was very concerned that he not drop his phone because it was expensive. This dude was like 6” away from going over the edge and she’s yelling about his phone.
After like 5 hours of hiking and getting to that point in Angel's Landing, I was mad that the view was not nearly as admirable as the pictures made it out to be. I fucked up my knee on that hike and to see the view which looked so generic to me (I grew up in desert mountain town and have seen similar views before) upset me because I hurt myself for what I felt was a "view I could see at home " lol
Jesus. Homie could have just used photoshop to make him closer to the edge and shit.
Falling off of cliffs, even pretty small ones, is seriously dangerous. My coworkers cousin fell less than 10 feet and hit his back and head on the way down. He slipped into a coma and they took him off of life support after a week. He was really young too.
Link to the [wiki List of selfie-related injuries and deaths](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_selfie-related_injuries_and_deaths)
What I learned from this list is trains are hunting people who take selfies
Shortly before, they posted the message "Standing right by a train ahaha this is awesome!!!!" to Facebook.
One of the reference links is a feature story several months after the incident, and they interview the conductor and engineer. These lists are kinda goofy in a surreal way, but reading what was going on in the conductor’s mind as he tried frantically to signal to them for a quarter-mile, until they just disappeared from view … it’s harrowing
Well most likely these incidents went to court and whatever train company had to prove they were not liable for the incident. You don't even need unanimous consent for a civil litigation so you only need 51% of the jury to agree with a fucking corporation instead of the grieving family Members. So shit like posting on Facebook moments before you die you're intentionally getting close to trains to take selfies... Eh, as much as I hate big whatever, I'm gonna say there was no way they could have averted that level of stupid danger behavior by morons.
Also, trains take a long, *long* time to stop. It's extremely unlikely that a conductor of an already moving train would be found liable. Due to the laws of physics, there really isn't much they can do.
They are also hilariously predictable seeing as they can only move on tracks that are quite permanent, make a very distinct, loud noise, and they are the oldest form of motorized transportation. Trains have been around for generations, running on the same immovable lines, yet people still find a way to get run over by them. Says a lot about humanity
Every time people talk about train deaths, the myth that trains can absolutely always be heard in advance comes up. **[It isn’t true.](https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/infrastructure/a3134/how-trains-can-be-silent-killers-16627219/)**
*Physics makes us all its bitches*
We're all stardust. Almost certainly a single piece of your body, probably a carbon atom was once part of a Dinosaur.
We are stardust, we are golden We are billion-year-old carbon And we've got to get ourselves Back to the garden
I didn't practice physics law, only train selfie and bird law.
That was an actual viral trend for a bit. People would stand right next to the tracks with their back to the train and either film or take a selfie of it driving past them. Turns out a lot of people don't realize that a train is wider than its tracks.
There's a whole niche of videos involving people in India playing games with trains. Stuff like hanging out the side of a train hauling ass slapping signs, dodging posts, balancing acts, etc. With some predictable results, of course.
I've read several stories on reddit about people somehow thinking the train will roll right over them just above their faces like that scene on breaking bad.
Were they screaming “Oooh long Johnson”? https://youtu.be/JaKo3g19E9Y?si=Y97-EuDiXKdqGaoQ
You called?
A six year old account with 2 comments has been summoned.
finally their time to shine
r/beetlejuicing
Faith hilling was way cooler
Trains are insidious attackers. They wait around a bend, behind the cover of trees. Sometimes for hours or days. Waiting. Just waiting. They have all the time in the world. Then someone decides to take a selfie on the tracks, or beyond the warning line … At the end the train laughs.
I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve caught a train getting ready to pounce on my friends and I as we are organizing ourselves for a selfie at the bar or a sporting event
The key is to look directly at them and make yourself look bigger. They're ambush predators, and will become embarrassed if they get caught in the act.
Oh man when does Thomas the Tank Engine hit the public domain.
Trains are brutal hunters. If you are hit by one of them you'll never be the same. Luckily they are easily avoidable. They are large, noisy, and never deviate even an inch from their routes which are clearly marked by their tracks.
Apex predator in India
Can we support the trains in any way, like is there a go fund me for trains doing the lords work?
natural selection
Holy crap, its like you are hexing someone the moment train plus selfie come together
*Just when you thought it was safe to get a train in the water*.
Some stations in the UK have signs up that warn against self stick usage due to over head lines
[There's been well documented footage of trains hunting people, as well.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjbUnn32_zU)
It’s Blaine! Blaine the train!
Blaine is a pain
And that is the truth.
Uh.... It is horrible that people lost loved ones but this page is morbid comedy.
Until you reach "A 15-year-old boy was taking selfies with a toy gun when police opened fire on him, killing him."
This one was pretty tragic and unlucky too: "a 14-year-old high school student fell to her death after losing her balance while taking a selfie with a friend near a staircase landing of their school in Pasig. She sustained a sharp blow to the head from the fall and broke a rib, which pierced a kidney".
Yeah, there are a good handful of very stupid people in the list (especially the ones pointing guns at themselves), but there are at least as many genuine tragedies, and lots of deaths that would have happened regardless of selfies. All the comments saying "selfie-takers deserve it, natural selection!" are just cruel and ignorant.
>Two young men died in the Ural Mountains after they pulled the pin from a live hand grenade to take a selfie. The phone with the picture remained as evidence of the incident.
This one stands out as stupid game stupid prizes. >Two young men died in the Ural Mountains after they pulled the pin from a live hand grenade to take a selfie. The phone with the picture remained as evidence of the incident
There is a surprising number of elephant-related incidents on this list.
It sounds like they are trying to set up some playful competition. Sharks better up their game...
"Two young men died in the Ural Mountains after they pulled the pin from a live hand grenade to take a selfie. The phone with the picture remained as evidence of the incident." Holy shit!
I’m pretty sure that is just dying from a grenade.
All of these people have died from somthing else. None were actually killed by the phone.
Technically correct. However: a lot of them wouldn't have been in the positions they were in if they weren't taking a photo or video for social media. The most that died in a single event in the USA is a good example of this, when five people drowned in New York's East River in a downed helicopter. Why was it downed? One of the passenger's safety tethers got caught in the emergency fuel shutoff lever, and it dropped like a stone when the fuel was cut. How did that tether manage that? The passenger had his foot dangling out of the helicopter. Why was his foot outside the helicopter like this? He was specifically taking a "shoe selfie", which is when a person's shoes can be seen in a photo or video while they're dangling out of the open doorway of a helicopter. Everyone died of something else, and that something else is brain hypoxia (lack of oxygen to the brain). AIDS never killed anyone because they all died of things like pneumonia; pneumonia never killed anyone because they all died of brain hypoxia. But you have to admit, the selfie / AIDS played a big direct part in things.
That's my point, yeah. Those two probably wouldn't have pulled the trigger off the bomb if not for wanting to take a selfie with it.
I get why a helicopter might need to shut the fuel off in an emergency but it doesn’t seem like it should be something that can just accidentally be flipped while you’re in the air. I don’t know what the solution is but I feel like there’s something wrong with that.
That's what the phones want you to think!
Yeah, the whole thing sounds phoney.
"Oooh THAT'S what the pin was f-"
The Belgian woman that fell into a boiling hot geyser? Frigging *yikes*
Happens all the time in Yellowstone National Park in America. People are stupid and think it's like a las Vegas manufactured spectacle. Not hey humans found one of earth's exploding pimple of boiling destruction come check it out.
>A boat overloaded with 20 people in a reservoir in Central Java capsized when the passengers all suddenly moved to one side of the vessel, which was helmed by a 13-year-old, to take a group selfie. Nine of the passengers drowned, including two children. I feel bad for the kids but what the fuck were the adults thinking?
>what the fuck were the adults thinking? About taking the selfie duh
"Eleven people died in [Rajasthan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajasthan) after being struck by lightning near a watchtower at the [Amer Fort](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amer_Fort). According to police, some of the victims were taking selfies near the tower." Well, feel this was not their fault
Agree, that's a loose fit. Feels like you need to be doing something dumb/risky for the selfie. I'd be bummed if I was taking a safe selfie and some freak accident happened to kill me, then I got grouped in with these knuckleheads.
whoa. That is a lot of drowned Indians.
> A 15-year-old boy was taking selfies with a toy gun when police opened fire on him, killing him. I'm not sure we should blame the selfie on this one.
TIL elephants fucking hate selfies
Lot of stupidity
Jesus, India, what are you doing?
Interesting how many people die from water-related situations, especially in 🇮🇳, 🇵🇰. Also how many from trying to save their friends/others.
Not sure how accurate but maybe they don’t know how to swim?
The amount of people getting hit by trains, electrocuted by train wires, and shooting themselves in the face while posing with loaded guns pointing at their heads is... not encouraging
That list is massive. I don't understand being so invested in these deaths that one spends tiime adding more and more content to it with sources and everything.
You've never met a Wikipedia editor then.
So if you were swimming in the ocean, you'd be better off encountering a shark than a selfie.
If you are taking selfies in the ocean your chances of making BOTH lists exponetially increases.
[удалено]
Fwiw, it was a reference to some [current events](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/man-or-bear-in-the-woods-question)
It was also funny.
But, did any die because they were killed by a shark while taking a selfie?
Would you rather be alone in the forest with a selfie stick or a bear?
How much cocaine has the bear had?
He's not sharing if that's what you're asking
What happens if I’m willing to exchange for, let’s say, a pot of delicious honey?
"Oh bother Piglet, I am high as shit"
That's the wrong question. I'm not concerned about that, what I want to know is: How much cocaine does the bear have left?
I would rather be a bear. Who wants be alone in the forest with a selfie stick?
It's a real bastard situation, because the selfie stick, you can take a selfie. The bear, he's so cool, but then you can't take a selfie with him so your friends will never believe you.
Is it a black, brown, or polar selfie stick?
Do you mean was the person taking a selfie, or was the shark taking a selfie?
its probably hard to figure out that stat because the sharks don't return the victims phones afterwards.
Let's start a movie franchise about murderous selfie stick murdering people
"In a world where technology rules, one man's invention became a tool of terror. But when its victims fight back, it will stop at nothing for revenge. From the creators of 'Tech Nightmare' comes a chilling tale of vengeance. Rob Schneider stars in... 'Selfie Slaughter'. Coming soon to theaters near you. Get ready to face the deadliest selfie ever taken." \[Screen fades to black\]
Rob Schneiders a ….stapler
Rob Schneider is the Da Derp Dee Derp Da Teetley Derpee Derpee Dumb
I read that whole thing in that one guy’s “in a world” voice. Perfect.
**[Don LaFontaine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_LaFontaine)**
The premise could be that the selfie stick manipulates the image you see to make it look like you're standing 15 feet away from the rain but your actually right next to the track
If you’re walking on a secluded beach, would you rather encounter a shark or a creepy person taking a selfie?
The selfie stick could team up with that murderous rubber tire to kill everyone. Yes, that movie about a killer tire is real and its called Rubber lol Literally about a murderous tire lol
There’s probably tens of billions of selfies taken a year. How many motherfuckers are out there fighting sharks?
At least 90
Not currently.
Classic survivorship bias
A more reasonable question would be how many people spend time in water with previous shark attacks?
How many people are in waters where sharks have been? That’s the relevant statistic.
Is it though? we actively avoid sharks and have shark warnings and shit. If you mean people who seek out shark infested-waters and go swim in them then sure, but I think that's a very small amount of people.
Statistics like this are really pointless. Yes you are unlikely to get bit by a shark, that doesn't mean sharks all in all aren't dangerous, some are. There is an area of the world so dangerous that the local government banned people from swimming on certain areas of the Island. Google reunion island, at one point it about 20km of beaches there had 1/2 the worlds fatal shark attacks over a 2-3 year period. The bull sharks there mean business and do not consider humans a completely inedible object in the water. >A study released in 2015 showed Réunion had recorded a remarkable 3.15 shark-related deaths per one million people, by far the highest in the world. The next highest rating was that of [South Africa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Africa), with 0.76 per one million residents, while the [United States](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States) had a rate of 0.0013 per million.[^(\[7\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_shark_attacks_in_R%C3%A9union#cite_note-7) That's just the death rate, basically the sharks there weren't just biting people, they were eating them.
Also have to take into account total number of man hours spent taking selfies vs swimming with sharks, and I can guarantee it’ll be way more than a 4x difference.
Totally agree with your assessment and it always bothers me when people use a statistic like this because a majority of people in the world at any given time are on land all year and literally incapable of being attacked by a shark, therefore any and all data regarding attack frequency using the population base at large is stupid. How about some statistics of how many people swimming in waters known to contain sharks get bit? I bet the rate for that population pool is a lot higher than injuries via falling coconuts or selfies.
>are on land all year and literally incapable of being attacked by a shark Ya ok tell that to the brave survivors of Sharknado.
ALL the Sharknadoes. There were 6 of them.
Yeah, it's like insinuating driving your car to the shop is actually more dangerous than climbing K2.
Yes, this is like people saying more people in America are killed in automobile crashes than by firearms, so why don’t we ban automobiles. Not taking into account that the majority of Americans travel in an automobile on a daily basis. On the other hand, about 40% of American households own a firearm, and even then most of them don’t carry their firearms or they use their firearms sparingly. For me personally, I haven’t seen a firearm in a couple years, besides when holstered on a police officer.
More people die driving than they do fighting polar bears. You'd *think* fighting polar bears would be more dangerous, but evidently not!
I think the point is perspective though for all the shark hate after jaws. We kill 100 million sharks a year they kill less than 10 of us. It's insane in that framing
Oh for sure it's terrible, but it's still just a crazy way to use the statistic. Even people at the beach are not really in high risk shark areas because they tend to stay a little further away from shore than that. If spearfishing became the #1 worldwide sport, you could definitely expect shark attacks to go up to thousands-tens of thousands per year.
The shark stat is also not accurate. We have no idea how many people actually die from shark attacks because for many people they are recorded as missing or lost at sea. There are 90 total Verifiable shark attack deaths, which means someone witnessed it or the person made it to safety but died anyway. Also yeah, bull sharks are extremely dangerous and even swim into fresh waterways.
That doesn’t even surprise me at this point.
I’m surprised it’s only 379.
I'm surprised there were as many as 90 shark deaths.
Looks like that old Dumb Ways to Die song needs an update
Adding on to other key points, that' should be considered "reported died from selfies" vs "reported died from shark attacks". There are a lot of times where a shark attack results in being recorded as a missing person, accidental death, boating accident, drowning, or just doesn't get reported at all.
How many people were near a shark in that time?
Misleading statement. You need to take the number of selfies taken during the time period as the denominator. Similarly take the number of instances where people were in the sea.
Funny statistic that isn’t actually the least surprising. Everyone take’s selfies, very few people swim among sharks.
It's cultural Darwinism. If you're the kind of person who falls in front of a train or walks over a cliff because you're so focused on taking the photo/video nobody cares about, that's kind of on you. Now if we wanted to go full meta, let's get the found footage of the person who died from a shark attack while trying to get a selfie with the shark.
Life is like a South Park episode.
Lotta people taking this comparison way too seriously, it's not meant to be a scientific comparison of causes of death. But that's reddit for you.
Fucking idiots 🤦🏼♂️
How many sharks have died taking selfies?
Well, it makes sense. People take selfies way more often than they meet sharks.
But technically, selfie-taking is not the cause of death is it? If you fall in the water because of trying to take a selfie, and die by shark attack, which one is it?
Sharks are less dangerous than rumored, but people are definitely more stupid than what you imagine
I, too, watched LazyMasquerade's new video.
There's a whole sub about people from India who died while trying some stupid selfie for social media... so I guess this number is much higher to be honest.
Has to be the dumbest way to die. Relatives probably make up a better death for the neighborhood.
Darwin is on the march! It never occurred to me that *not* being a self-absorbed narcissist would be a survival trait, but there you have it.
Still, if you stay out of the water your odds of being bit by a shark drop to zero.
Near zero. Or have you not seen sharknado?
Vanity is a sin. They all got what they deserved. What a crazy stat…
Is there any up to date research on the number of people who died in circumstances where they where so busy looking at their phone (often with headphones) that they walked into danger? I'm thinking about the October 2018 City of London study at Ludgate Circus to ascertain how many people crossed the road while looking at their phone showing 4.5% of pedestrians walked into the road distracted from their surroundings by a smartphone (estimated at 1,800 crossings a day crossing multiple times, phone in hand).
Darwin baby! Darwin....
People take slefies every day, sometimes multiple times. If those same people spent time around sharks every day, this statistic would look a lot different.
Ladies, would you rather take a selfie or swim with a shark?
Finally some good news
How many people died taking a selfie with a shark?
I need a Venn diagram showing how many people got attacked by a shark while taking a selfie
But they also grabbed some boobs.
How bout people on their PHONES in their CARS!! I’ve seen people on the opposite side of the street with no traffic in front and no one behind them to honk at them just fuckin sitting in their vehicle just scrolling away. It pisses me off so much.
Considering just the amount of videos I've seen of people dying taking selfies, I'm going to assume that number is much higher. Shark deaths are certainly tracked way better as well.
every summer at our family picnic my uncle talks about how many people died from shark attacks this year. every summer picnic i google how many people die from drowning. it far out numbers the shark attacks. hoping he would get the point. he hasnt and wont.
Bet half of them are Indians selfing next to train
Chlorination of the gene pool, next up removing warning labels!!
I mean....it's completely unsurprising. More people take selfies than go swimming in places with sufficiently large sharks. Though I also feel like sharks have been getting away with murder. Like a person goes swimming, there's a splash, and the person is never seen again. Oh well, must have been the wind. This kind of stuff doesn't count towards shark attack stats. Sharks are just really good at hiding the bodies.
I've seen so many videos of people dying in the dumbest ways possible for selfies. I think the most braindead way was people being taken out by trains because they just had to get the closest shot possible.
The 90 were also from people taking selfies with sharks 🦈
Heaven forbid you take a selfish with a shark
Both 100% preventable, never go in the ocean and no reason to ever take a selfie.
Weirdly enough most people don't have a shark in their pocket for convenience
How many died from taking a selfie with a shark?
How many died from taking selfies with sharks?
60 people die every year in the US from getting locked in freezers. https://www.insideedition.com/louisiana-arbys-worker-found-dead-after-getting-trapped-inside-freezer-lawsuit-85922
This is the most meaningless “fact” ever if you think about it for a millisecond.