A man uses a selfie stick to take his own photos in Times Square in the Manhattan borough of New York Jan.17, 2015. (REUTERS/Carlo Allegri)
More people are dying for the perfect selfie.
A new study – titled, “Me, Myself and My Killfie: Characterizing and Preventing Selfie Deaths” – found that 127 people have died in a 29-month span through last September while trying to get photos of themselves at dangerous or exotic locations. The overwhelming majority of the deaths compiled by researchers occurred in India, where 76 people died. In the United States, there were eight selfie-related deaths.
The most common factor behind the so-called “selfie deaths” – defined as a death of an individual or group that could have been avoided had the individual(s) not been taking a selfie – was a fall from an elevated location like buildings or mountains. Deaths involving both elevation and water were next, followed by fatalities involving trains, according to researchers from Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania and two colleges in India.
“We found that taking selfies on train tracks is a trend,” the study reads. “This trend caters to the belief that posting on or next to train tracks with their best friend is regarded as romantic and a sign of never-ending friendship.”
More on this story at The New York Post.
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