June 13, 2018
Do you ever see a selfie and wonder what the person had to go through in order to capture the picture? For almost as long as the camera has existed, people have been using a camera timer to help capture the perfect shot. Now, despite the availability of camera timers, we have ditched the timer to take matters into our own hands, literally. From the “selfie-stick” to the long-armed friend to the “up-close-and-personal,” the selfie comes in all shapes and sizes. Whether or not we are willing to admit it, it’s likely that almost everyone has been involved in a selfie—voluntarily or otherwise, at some point or another.
While in most cases, the “selfie” is all in good fun, in some cases, it can be surprisingly dangerous, and sometimes even deadly. A Carnegie Mellon University study found that worldwide, there were 127 selfie-related deaths from 2014-2016, eight of which were in the United States. Rolling Stone reported that in 2015, the number of selfie-related deaths in the world exceeded the number of deaths caused by shark attacks.
Rolling Stone’s article, “Death by Selfie: 11 Disturbing Stories of Social Media Pics Gone Wrong,” tells the story of a Chinese man who was drowned to death by a walrus at a zoo while trying to take a selfie and an 18 year old Romanian girl who was shocked by a live wire while attempting to take what she described to her friend as “the ultimate selfie” on top of a train. ABC reported that in another incident, a woman was standing on a log on the beach in Oregon when she fell, became pinned under a log, and drowned. According to ABC, a man also accidentally shot himself while trying to take a selfie.
In addition to numerous deaths, many serious injuries have been selfie-related. ABC News reported a woman who fell overboard from a cruise ship while trying to take a selfie and another woman taking selfies in front of a wild bison in Yellowstone National Park when it rammed into her and caused serious injuries. Carnegie Melon’s study revealed that many deaths involving selfies also involved heights, including many who fell off buildings or mountains while trying to take dangerous selfies. Some injuries weren’t personal at all: A woman in Los Angeles knocked down over $200,000 worth of art while trying to take a selfie.
Where there are deaths, injuries, and financial loss, there are usually lawsuits to follow, even in cases where it may appear that there is no viable claim. With the number of selfie-related deaths on the rise, defense counsel specializing in personal injury and wrongful death cases should be aware of the contributory or comparative negligence defenses available in their respective states and should also consider preserving theses defenses in all cases where an injured party or decedent’s camera operation may be at issue. Additionally, discovery and deposition questioning in applicable personal injury cases should contain questions specifically targeted at determining whether a camera was in use (by the injured party or anyone else present) at the time of injury or death, in addition to the standard line of questioning regarding the plaintiff’s use of a cell phone at the time of the accident.
While selfie injuries and deaths are certainly devastating, it shouldn’t be the defendant who is ultimately forced to pay when someone goes a little too far to get that perfect shot