It’s becoming a trend… terrible injuries and even death as people attempt to take selfies in precarious situations. The latest is a US tourist who dropped his phone, reached for it, and fell into a volcano.
US tourist falls into volcano while trying to take a selfie
It’s a report we hear too often these days. Someone trying to capture an incredible, one-of-a-kind “selfie” gets a little too close to the edge of a precarious precipice or a territorial animal. They get a lasting memory, all right, but not the one intended.
Such is the case of a 23-year-old American tourist who tried to take a picture of himself at the edge of a volcano. Then he dropped his phone and fell in while trying to reach for it, the Daily Wire reported.
Luckily for the tourist, the once-fiery peak that is Italy’s legendary Mount Vesuvius currently has no bubbling cauldron of red hot magma at the bottom. Nonetheless, the man cheated death, avoiding a lengthy fall to the bottom, CNN reported.
According to an official that operates the base at the top of Vesuvius, the tourist, identified as Philip Carroll, climbed to the top of the 4,000-foot volcano without tickets, then took a path that was clearly marked as forbidden. He was accompanied by three relatives on the illegal hike.
Carroll slid a few meters into the crater while trying to recover his phone after dropping it. Carroll managed to stop his fall, avoiding plunging the full 300 meters into the crater, NBC reported. But Carroll was stuck and had to be rescued. Photos showed that Carroll had significant deep scrapes over a large portion of his back, as well as on both elbows, NBC reported. However, Carroll refused hospitalization and was treated by an ambulance at the scene.
The local Carabinieri police took Carroll into custody and it’s likely he could face charges for “invasion of public land.”
Death by selfie: An alarming trend
Headlines of people dying while taking selfies have become more and more frequent. In 2021, the Sun reported that 330 people had died over the decade while attempting to take photographs of themselves in risky situations. People have fallen off of cliffs, fell into dangerous waters, were struck by trains, and more.
Just this past January, a 21-year-old hiker in the Superstition Mountains near Phoenix, Arizona, fell 700 feet to his death, CBS reported. Arizona’s Grand Canyon has been host to a number of selfie deaths by falling, as well as US national parks such as Yosemite and Yellowstone, where people have also suffered from animal attacks and fatal falls, Inside Hook reports. As of 2021, the US was the second-leading country for selfie-related deaths with 26.
