2024-07-29 15:30:10
A 14-year-old girl has died after falling off the edge of a waterfall while filming for her TikTok followers. Her death occurred as a result of drowning caused by her body being trapped between two rocks and the strong jet of water hitting her.
Moe Sa Ney poses with her friends for photos to share with her 150,000 followers as she slips on wet rocks at Sinyua Falls in southeast Myanmar on July 22.
The teenage girl drifts downstream and her body is trapped between the large rocks. After failing to escape, Ney drowns as the water crashes against the rocks around her.
The waterfall where the incident happened is a popular tourist destination in Paung town, Mon State.
Rescuers quickly arrived at the scene, but were unable to retrieve the girl’s body in time. Dramatic footage from the morning after the accident shows firefighters and volunteers struggling to retrieve the body of the dead girl.
They are seen tying her hands with a rope, pulling her out of the narrow hole. Rescue worker Mon Zaw says: “They tried to help her, but they couldn’t pull her out. That’s when rescuers and authorities arrived.” The girl’s body was taken to Paung City Hospital for an autopsy.
Meanwhile, her friend, who also slipped and fell at the waterfall, suffered only minor injuries.
This case is not unique. A beautician, 39, falls from a panoramic platform located about 52 meters high while taking a selfie in April. Inessa Polenko climbed over a barrier, lost her balance and fell onto a bench below, according to witnesses. Paramedics quickly arrived at the scene, but the woman died at the hospital. The incident happened at the Gagra panoramic site in Abkhazia, a breakaway region of Georgia. The site offers a view of the Black Sea.
In another similar incident, again in April, two students from the University of Dundee drowned after falling into the waters of a waterfall while attempting to take pictures. Jitendranath Karutiri, 26, and Chanhakya Bolisetty, 22, were taking pictures at the Lynn of Tumel Falls, near Blair Athol, when they slipped and fell into the river. According to the testimony of their friend, who was with them on their walk in the Highlands, their bodies were swept away by the current. They were subsequently discovered by the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.
According to a new study, taking selfies should be considered a “public health problem”. Academics in Australia analyzed scientific and media studies on injuries and deaths caused by taking selfies worldwide since 2008. They found that nearly 400 cases have been announced in the last 13 years.Most often, the victims are female tourists, between the ages of 20 and 25, while the causes are mostly falls and drowning.
According to the researchers, the public needs to be made aware of the risks that taking selfies can lead to, given the fact that nearly 92 million selfies are taken every day around the world. They are calling on social media apps to install software to warn people about the dangers of taking selfies.
Dr. Samuel Cornell, a risk expert at the University of New South Wales, Australia, along with other scientists, wrote: “The phenomenon of selfie accidents should be seen as a public health problem that requires a public health response. To date, little attention has been paid to preventing related incidents, which can be achieved through behavioral change techniques or direct messaging through applications.
Although previous research has advocated ‘selfie-free zones’, barriers and signage as ways to prevent such incidents, our results suggest that this may not be enough. It would be wise for social media users to engage in direct safety messages,” wrote the Daily Mail.