Death by selfie
It’s fun to have pics of yourself when you’re out and about – but for these unlucky snappers it was the last thing they’d ever do
TAKING selfies has become a global pastime – head out into the big wide world and chances are you’ll probably see someone somewhere snapping a picture of themselves. And if that doesn’t work, they’ll just do it the old-fashioned way and ask someone to take the picture for them.
It can be loads of fun, of course – but it can also be deadly business.
As these stories show, sometimes you can be too busy posing for the perfect pic to notice when danger is just around the corner . . . Keen to capture a magical moment while visiting the Seven Sisters cliff in England, South Korean student Hyewon Kim (23) handed her cellphone to a group of three other South Korean tourists (who were unknown to her) and asked them to take a picture of her. In an attempt to make the pic even better, Hyewon decided to leap into the air – but she lost her footing and fell to her death, striking rocks some 60m down the cliff. There’s nothing wrong with throwing caution to the wind when on holiday – in fact, that’s exactly what holidays are for. Sometimes though, a little carefree fun can go very wrong. Natalia Borodina (35) of Russia and her friend Ivanna Boirachuk (32) were riding around the Dominican Republic in South America in a Kia. Natalia was topless and hanging out of the car window while Ivanna filmed her on her smartphone. But as the car made its way down the road, Natalia’s head hit a street sign. The mother of one was rushed to a nearby hospital but pronounced dead on arrival.
When abroad most tourists are keen to photograph themselves in front of breathtaking scenery, but British native Dean Steele (22) had something rather more adrenaline-inducing in mind.
He and two friends, who were staying in Hamburg, Germany, were more interested in getting a good picture while posing on an autobahn (freeway).
According to a local police statement, the men may have been drinking prior to the incident and witnesses reportedly saw them taking “cellphone pictures of themselves” while crossing the road.
Although his friends were unharmed Dean was hit and killed by a passing Audi A6. The ironic thing about British tourist Roger Stotesbury’s bizarre death is he’d almost foretold it.
Before Roger (58) and his wife, Hilary, embarked on a “middle-aged gap year” the couple started a travel blog. In it the documentary maker wrote that his motto was “to die young as late as possible” – which meant although he was no longer a spring chicken he still felt in the prime of his life.
Just a few months later he fell to his death from the wall of an ancient Indian temple as his wife, , who initially thought her husband had only broken his leg, watched in horror.
The couple, who have two adult children, were visiting the famous Laxminarayan Temple in New Delhi when Roger went to take a selfie from the second floor.
Hilary told authorities India had been their final stop before they were set to return home. New Zealander Rachael Louise De Jong (21) and three friends were enjoying a blissful day at their country’s Waikato River when they decided to wade to a small rock and take a few selfies.
As they primped and pouted a siren went off, signalling the floodgates of a dam upstream would soon be opened.
The group tried to jump to safety as fastflowing water began to rise around them but, while Rachael’s friends managed to escape, she was swept downstream and drowned.
German tourist Katrin Taylor witnessed the incident and said the water had become “quite high” when they noticed four people “holding selfie sticks” on the other side of the river.
“We could see the water was rising further and they were in danger of getting washed away,” she said. “There was nothing we could do. We just stood there and watched helplessly. It was horrible.”