Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Absent minded selfie snappers plunge to their destruction, Darwin awards bestowed posthumously.

People, people, people...

Two travelers reportedly died in different instances in Peru recently while standing too close to the cliff ledge when posing for a photo. Last week, a 51-year-old man died when losing his balance at the edge of a cliff at Machu Picchu, in an area closed off to the public. He fell 130 feet. Prior to that, a South Korean tourist fell in northern Peru while taking a selfie at the Gocta waterfall, one of the tallest waterfalls in the world. He plunged more than 1,600 feet.

That 1600 foot fall must have been a doozy. 

There is now an entire Wikipedia page devoted to selfie-related injuries and deaths. The latter ranging from a 21-year-old Spanish man who was electrocuted in March 2014 after climbing on top of a train to take a selfie with friends, to a Japanese tourist who died last August by injuries sustained when falling down a staircase while taking a selfie at the Taj Mahal. In 2016, numerous people have died falling off cliffs or drowning while attempting to take photos.

In May of this year, a Chinese businessman was killed by a walrus at a wildlife park after posing too close to the animal for a selfie.

Walrus death. A unique way to exit this mortal coil.

5 comments:

  1. The headstone comments should be epic.

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  2. The fall never kills anyone, it's the sudden stop at the end.

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  3. I don't think it's absent mindedness to blame

    More like the special snowflake syndrome, in that nothing bad can happen to them. That would be unfair. Common sense is not so common anymore.

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  4. 1600 feet. He would have been in free fall for almost exactly 10 seconds.

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