For as long as there have been cameras, there have been photos of people doing interesting or silly or dangerous things, often in exotic locales. The difference is that until the latter part of the 20th century, somebody else had to shoot the subject, or the use of a cable release or timer was required. (For a vivid illustration of how much photography has changed over the years, consider these 50 photos from American life in the 19th century.)
Then came smartphones with self-facing cameras and selfie sticks and fancy filters to turn the taking and enhancing of self-portraits into a whole new game. The term “selfie” was first recorded in Australia in 2002. By 2013 it had become common enough to get itself dubbed “word of the year” by the authoritative Oxford English Dictionary. These are 30 words that didn’t exist 30 years ago.
Selfies are fun. They’re a way of sharing our lives with others; of recording things we’ve done, places we’ve been, people we’ve shared moments with; of — let’s admit it — showing off. They can also be deadly — literally.
According to one study, there were 259 selfie-related deaths around the world between October 2011 and November 2017 alone — the overwhelming majority of them, for some reason, in India. Many of these involved trains — people standing on tracks or climbing on top of railway cars, where they either got knocked off or were electrocuted. Falls from high places and drownings were also common, as people sought to capture startling images with a sense of danger that all too often turned out to be real.
24/7 Tempo has compiled a list of 25 fatal selfie accidents from five continents that seem particularly unfortunate because the deaths resulted from behavior that any thinking person should have known enough to avoid (always assume a gun is loaded; don’t think that wild animals are your friends; what goes up must come down.)
We culled these examples of ostensibly preventable selfie-related fatalities from an extensively sourced and annotated page on Wikipedia, citing some 222 newspaper, magazine, and online reports from around the world.
Click here to see 25 of the most preventable fatal selfie accidents around the world
1 death in Spain
> What they did for a selfie: Touched a live wire on top of a train
> When it happened: Mar 2014
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2 deaths in the United States
> What they did for a selfie: Took a GoPro video of himself while flying a plane
> When it happened: May 2014
1 death in Mexico
> What they did for a selfie: Pointed a gun at his face while drinking
> When it happened: Aug 2014
2 deaths in Russia
> What they did for a selfie: Pulled the pin on a live hand grenade
> When it happened: Jan 2015
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7 deaths in India
> What they did for a selfie: Tipped their boat on a lake by standing up together
> When it happened: Mar 2015
1 death in Serbia
> What they did for a selfie: Ran in front of an express train to recreate a scene from a favorite movie
> When it happened: Apr 2015
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1 death in Indonesia
> What they did for a selfie: Stood too close to the edge of a live volcano
> When it happened: May 2015
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1 death in Pakistan
> What they did for a selfie: Played with a toy gun, causing police to open fire on him
> When it happened: June 2015
1 death in Wales
> What they did for a selfie: Held up his selfie stick, attracting a lightning bolt
> When it happened: July 2015
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1 death in Spain
> What they did for a selfie: Took a picture of a bull while participating in a bull-running festival
> When it happened: Aug 2015
1 death in Russia
> What they did for a selfie: Hung from a rope from a nine-story building
> When it happened: Sep 2015
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1 death in Chile
> What they did for a selfie: Stood in front of an active geyser, then stepped backwards
> When it happened: Oct 2015
2 deaths in Turkey
> What they did for a selfie: Lay down on a truck route for a view of a plane landing
> When it happened: Dec 2015
1 death in The Philippines
> What they did for a selfie: Climbed up the parapet on a 20-story building
> When it happened: Jan 2016
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1 death in Australia
> What they did for a selfie: Let a friend point an “unloaded” sawed-off shotgun at him
> When it happened: Mar 2016
1 death in China
> What they did for a selfie: Entered the zoo enclosure of a 3,300-pound walrus
> When it happened: May 2016
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1 death in Peru
> What they did for a selfie: Leapt into the air for a “flying” shot at Machu Picchu
> When it happened: June 2016
1 death in Nepal
> What they did for a selfie: Tried to take a picture with a herd of 21 wild elephants
> When it happened: July 2016
1 death in India
> What they did for a selfie: Climbed onto a fragile glass dome on a third-floor terrace
> When it happened: Aug 2016
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3 deaths in Pakistan
> What they did for a selfie: Entered an ice cave with a weak roof at the edge of a glacier
> When it happened: Aug 2016
2 deaths in Mexico
> What they did for a selfie: Stood on the roof of a pickup as a plane came in very low above them
> When it happened: Mar 2017
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5 deaths in the United States
> What they did for a selfie: Tried to take “shoe selfies” out the open door of a helicopter
> When it happened: Mar 2018
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> What they did for a selfie: Posed with a wounded bear
> When it happened: May 2018
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1 death in Australia
> What they did for a selfie: Sat on the edge of a 96-foot-high cliff
> When it happened: Jan 2020
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9 deaths in Indonesia
> What they did for a selfie: All suddenly moved to the same side of an overloaded boat
> When it happened: May 2021
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