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Mumbai: It’s Time to End Deaths-by-Selfie
After a teenager died while taking a selfie last week, Mumbai established no-selfie zones to prevent future accidents.
In the past year, people around the world have shot themselves in the head, been gored by bison, and electrocuted themselves while posing on train roofs — all in the name of taking selfies.
Officials in India have had enough after a 2015 that saw young adults attempting to take selfies, only to fall off a boat and drown, plunge to death from a mountaintop, or be run down by a speeding train. On Tuesday, Mumbai became the latest local government to protect people from themselves when it established no-selfie zones throughout the city.
The move came after an 18-year-old drowned last week while she and her friends attempted to photograph themselves at Bandra Fort, a seaside tourist attraction in India’s most populated city. A 35-year-old man also died while attempting to rescue the three young women when they fell in the water. A day later, despite much of the site being cordoned off, people reportedly continued to take selfies in the water nearby.
Signs declaring no-selfie zones will be posted at 16 sites, including several seaside forts and beaches, where local police will warn people not to attempt to photograph themselves. The Mumbai deputy police commissioner told reporters that he hopes the city will also install lifeguards at the sites.
Death-by-selfie has become a global phenomenon in recent years, prompting state agencies in various countries to encourage citizens not to take photos that could put themselves in danger.
Last July, Russian police released a selfie-safety pamphlet when the 2015 selfie-related accident toll climbed to 100 just halfway through the year.
And just two months ago, as a dangerous November storm bore down on Wales and southern England, the Environment Agency and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents issued a warning to British citizens not to risk their lives taking “storm selfies.”
Photo credit: INDRANIL MUKHERJEE/AFP/Getty Images
Correction, Jan. 12, 2016: The person who was electrocuted while taking a selfie was posing on the roof of a parked train. An earlier version of this article said the person was riding atop the train.
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