Risky Selfie Sends Texas Teen Plummeting 50 Feet

DALLAS, TX -- An 18-year-old Dallas man narrowly avoided death after falling from a bridge while taking a selfie in November. Triston Bailey was trying to snap a photo of the city skyline from the Margaret McDermott Bridge when he fell, the Star-Telegram reported.

"They heard me scream and they thought I was joking," Bailey said, according to ABC13. "I broke my pelvis, I had a rib fracture, a punctured lung, I broke my face a whole bunch and I had lacerated my spleen."

Bailey, who has just attended a Dallas Stars hockey game, was taken to Methodist Dallas Medical Center which provided Patch the photos. Since 2011, more than 250 people around the world have died while attempting to take selfies, according to a study published in the Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care in July 2018.

Between October 2011 to November 2017, there were 259 selfie-related deaths. The mean age of the victims was 22.94 years, the study "Selfies: A boon or bane?" stated.

"About 72.5 percent of the total deaths occurred in males and 27.5 percent in females," the study added. "The highest number of incidents and selfie-deaths has been reported in India followed by Russia, United States, and Pakistan."