New Delhi — More than 250 people were killed while taking selfies from October 2011 to November 2017, according to the results of a recent study conducted by researchers at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.
Searching the internet for selfie-related news reports from an “exhaustive list” of English-language newspapers over the six-year period, the researchers identified 137 incidents that resulted in 259 deaths.
Among the findings:
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- 72.5 percent of the victims were male.
- 20-somethings had the most casualties with 106, followed by tweens and teens with 76.
- 70 deaths involved drowning, while 51 involved transportation (i.e., taking a selfie in front of an approaching train). Falls and fires both were linked to 48 deaths.
- 159 deaths occurred in India, followed by Russia (16), the United States (14) and Pakistan (11).
The researchers said that many high-risk tourist locations should be deemed “no-selfie zones” to discourage unsafe behaviors near places such as mountain peaks, tall buildings or bodies of water.
The study was published in the July-August 2018 edition of the Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care.
