How Selfies at Tourist Spots Are Turning into a Serious Safety Concern

Visiting iconic landmarks can quickly turn into navigating a sea of photo ops dominated by daring selfie enthusiasts. It’s a struggle between enjoying the scenery and dodging camera clicks.

These influencers and tourists often go to extremes to capture their perfect shot, including dangerous stunts like hanging off cliffs. Tragically, the pursuit of extreme selfies can be deadly, with a University of South Wales study linking this trend to hundreds of global fatalities.

Hundreds of Lives Lost

There is little surprise that fatalities are on the rise: One only needs a cursory Internet search to see countless videos of young thrill-seekers dangling from construction site cranes, atop lofty skyscrapers, or in parkour-related danger. It was only a matter of time before accidents would happen, and a study published by the Journal of Medical Internet Research proves how deadly selfie-taking can be.

Three scientists from different departments — the Beach Safety Research Group, the School of Population Health, and the School of Environmental Health- collaborated to research how selfie — related injuries were reported in national and global media.

The study focused on cases in Australia and the United States between October and December 2022, using “environmental scan technology to screen causal factors” related to selfie accidents. The study aimed to provide land managers and public health authorities with evidence to mitigate selfie-related deaths, such as no-selfie signs.

An Average Age of 22 Years

The data show some alarming figures, with the most prominent form of death falling from heights, while drowning was the second most common cause. Of the twelve media-reported cases studied (admittedly a small testing group), there were four injuries and eight fatalities.

However, another sobering statistic is that the majority of accidents happened to female tourist photographers and that the average age of a selfie accident victim was 22 years old — incredibly young but hardly surprising.

A Growing Problem

One of the earliest examples of a tragic selfie death happened in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 2011, when three teenagers aged 13-15 years lost their lives after a Union Pacific train ran into them; the image was discovered on their phones. The haunting message, “Standing right by a train, ahaha this is awesome,” appeared on Facebook before the accident.

More recently, The Sun reports Rosy Loomba, a 38-year-old Australian, was taking selfies at Boroka Lookout in Grampians National Park in Victoria, Australia. The famous viewing spot is nicknamed “Selfie Rock,” but Loomba took her selfie obsession too far as she hopped a fence, looking for a better angle. This decision to get a better angle was fatal.

A Public Health Risk

The study concludes with an insistence that these selfie-related dangers be viewed as a public health problem needing a “public risk communication response.”

Due to their casual appearance, selfies have not raised the necessary alarm, with no behavior change methodologies consulted. With hundreds of selfie-related deaths reported globally since 2011, it must only be a matter of time before authorities take this phenomenon more seriously.