When taking a ‘selfie‘ (a sort of portmanteau of ‘self-portrait photograph’) is where a person holds a device featuring a camera towards themselves while trying to capture the image of an object or another person. When carrying out this activity it is difficult to keep focused on the other things around and this can lead to accidents and, it seems, a high proportion of fatalities.
According to CNN, when collating the latest reported figures, in 2014 around the world there were 49 fatalities associated with the person who was taking the selfie.
The most recent example, reported on Digital Journal, was where a youngster in India was struck and killed while trying to take a picture of himself in front of an oncoming train. The event happened near the southern city of Chennai.
The tally of 49 deaths have been collated by an analytical site called ‘Priceonomics.’ The site indicates the 49 deaths is likely to be an underestimate, since the attempted act of taking a selfie is not recorded on all death reports. One interesting statistic is with gender and demographics. The selfie deaths are by the majority male (37 of 49 deaths) and the typical age is 21 years-old.
In terms of where the selfie contingent tend to meet their end this is either high places (16 deaths) or in water (14 deaths). With geography, there was a disproportionate number from India with 19 of the 49 deaths being recorded within the country.
To address this modern malaise, India has proclaimed 16 no-selfie zones and many tourist spots in Russia feature selfie warning posters.
