You know how you look at all those people who are obsessed with selfies and kind of wish they’d fall in front of a truck or off a cliff or something? Well, good news! A report has found that the self-obsessed culture of people who now spend up to 5 hours a day taking pics of themselves with their phones, are being killed off faster than people being attacked by sharks.
Based on the serious, hard core research I completed on the internet, there were 9 fatal shark attacks around the world in 2015 (Trackingsharks.com)
Meanwhile, there were 22 selfie related deaths reported in the media during 2015. Here’s a complete list, via Wikipedia.
January
– A 21-year-old South African woman died after falling from Northcliff Hill, Johannesburg, as a male companion was setting up a tripod for a selfie. Reports vary as to the identity of the companion.
– Two young men died in the Ural mountains as they pulled the pin from a hand grenade to take a selfie, which remained as evidence of the circumstances of their deaths.[25]
Three Indian students aged 20 to 22 died trying to take a “daredevil selfie” close to an oncoming train.
March
– Seven Indian youths drowned while taking selfies on Mangrul Lake near Kuhi, about 20 km from Nagpur, India. Their boat had tipped over as they were standing up to pose.
– An 18-year-old Romanian teenager died when she attempted to take the “ultimate selfie”, posing with a friend atop a train in the north-eastern Romanian city of Iași when her leg touched a live wire above, sending an electrical surge of up to 27,000 volts through her body. A 17-year-old friend who accompanied her was hospitalised.
– A teenager climbed on a railway bridge in the Ryazan region in Russia to take a selfie and died when he came in contact with live wires.
– A 21-year-old Russian woman asked a security guard at her office to give her a 9-millimeter rubber-bullet pistol for taking a selfie and accidentally shot herself in the head, sustaining heavy injuries.
– A 21-year-old man from Yogyakarta, Indonesia, fell into the crater of Mount Merapi and died while attempting to take a selfie.
– A Singaporean tourist died after falling into the sea while taking a selfie on a cliff in Nusa Lembongan, an island off the coast of Bali, Indonesia.
July
– A 21-year-old Russian university graduate died after falling from a bridge while she was trying to take a memorable selfie next to the Moscow City financial district.
– A man from San Diego was hospitalised for five days following an attempt to take a selfie with a rattlesnake.
August
– A man died in the annual bull-running festival in the town of Villaseca de la Sagra trying to take a selfie with the animals.
September
– A 19-year-old from Houston died after trying to take an Instagram selfie while holding a loaded gun to his head. He accidentally fired the gun and shot himself in the throat.
– A Japanese tourist fell down a staircase to his death while taking a selfie at the Taj Mahal.
– A 17-year-old Russian student fell to his death attempting to take a selfie while hanging from a nine-story building.
– An Indian engineering student died while taking selfies with friends at Kolli Hills, Namakkal, Tamil Nadu, India, when the rock on which he was standing cracked and gave way, plunging him 60 feet and causing his death from head injuries.
October
– A 14-year-old from Barcelona died from electrocution after trying to take a selfie on the roof of a train car.
November
– Two engineering students of Vadhvan, Gujarat, India, drowned in Narmada Canal after slipping down the bank while taking selfies.
– BA first-year student of the Kalyani Mahavidyalaya College Sourav Dey died and another was critically injured in the Kalyani area in Nadia district of West Bengal, India as they were run over by a train while they were taking selfies. Both the students were taking selfies on the track when they were hit by a train.
– A 14-year-old, Class-IX student of the St. Francis Xaviers High School, Sahil C. Eshwarkar, who was trying to take a selfie on his cellphone atop a stationary train wagon at Nahur station yard in Mumbai, India, was electrocuted and died a few hours later allegedly climbed atop a goods train wagon parked there to click a selfie. He accidentally came in contact with a 25,000 V overhead electrical wire and was electrocuted, suffering 80 per cent burns.
December
– 22-year-old Jamshaid, son of a railway employee of Rawalpindi, Pakistan, died while attempting to take a selfie while standing on the track in front of a moving train.
In case you were wondering, this year’s tally is already up to 8.
We can only hope that the Darwin Awards add a “Best Selfie” category to their awards.