The intrepid hikers playing ‘Russian Roulette’ in search of the ‘perfect Instagram shot’
Some say a picture is worth a thousand words, but for a few daring hikers, a photo is what ended their lives.
The hunt for the ‘perfect Instagram shot’ at stunning beauty spots has seen people fall off of cliffs, rooftops, and above all, ignore safety barriers just to get the aesthetic snap that proves to their followers just how adventurous and fearless they are.
The fateful act has plagued the world for years, but the trend’s rates have skyrocketed in the US all on its own, according to newly released data.
According to research released this week by Bonuses.com, the top places where deadly selfies are most common are at the Grand Canyon in Arizona, the Yosemite National Park in California, Niagara Falls, New York and Wyoming‘s Yellowstone National Park.
The bonus comparison platform also found that soaring rooftops in the Big Apple ‘are frequently cited in reports of accidental falls, often linked to parties, stunts, or attempts to capture striking skyline selfies’.
Yosemite National Park, a popular hiking area, saw 30 unintentional falls between 2014 to 2019 alone, research stated.
Two of those instances ended horribly for a couple from India and an Israeli teenager who tragically lost their lives within a year of each other.
On September 5, 2018 Tomer Frankfurter, 18, plunged more than 800ft to his death while attempting to take a picture of himself on a Yosemite cliff.
The top US locations where deadly selfies are most common are at the Grand Canyon in Arizona, the Yosemite National Park in California, Niagara Falls, New York and Wyoming ‘s Yellowstone National Park
On September 5, 2018 Tomer Frankfurter, 18, plunged more than 800ft to his death while attempting to take a picture of himself on a Yosemite cliff
Vishnu Viswanath, 29, and his wife Menakshi Moorthy, 30, fell to their deaths off of an 800ft scenic overlook at the national park on October 23, 2018
Frankfurter, who was on a two-month tour of the US from Israel at the time of his death, had been trekking the revered 5.4 mile Mist Trail route through the stunning Nevada Falls cliff when he decided he wanted to capture a memorable photo of the trip.
Handing his cell phone to a woman in the group, Frankfurter is then said to have started climbing over the cliff edge as other hikers tried to persuade the teenager to come back because it wasn’t safe.
Instead, Frankfurter continued over the rock-face and dangled himself above the falls below while suspending himself with his arms.
For a few moments everything went as planned for Frankfurter, who posed for pictures with the rest of the group watching on.
However, suddenly the teen’s grip began to slip and he called out ‘I need help’ in desperation.
A number of tourists ran over and tried to hoist Frankfurter back to safety, grabbing on to his arms and wrists.
But as it was a warm summer afternoon, Frankfurter began to tire and his hands became slippery with sweat.
Then suddenly the Jerusalem native fell – plunging 820ft to the ground below.
Drea Rose Laguillo and Sean Matteson, came forward shortly after the couple’s death sharing an image with pink-haired Moorthy in the background
Friends of Frankfurter recalled how he said he wanted to replicate a photo he’d seen of a tourist in Brazil at Telegraph Rock, showing the individual hanging from a rocky platform, appearing to be thousands of feet above the ground.
In reality, the photo is actually an optical illusion, with the rock hanging just three-feet above a pathway below.
A little more than a month later, Vishnu Viswanath, 29, and his wife Menakshi Moorthy, 30, fell to their deaths off of an 800ft scenic overlook at the national park
The young couple, who wrote a travel blog together, were trying to take a photo on the edge of the overlook just before they died on October 23, 2018, Jishnu Viswanath, the husband’s brother, previously told the Associated Press.
Their tripod camera, which was set up by Moorthy, was later located at the ledge that doesn’t have a railing, Jishnu said.
The following morning, park visitors saw the camera and alerted rangers, who ‘used high-powered binoculars to find them and used helicopters to airlift the bodies,’ he said.
Shortly after news broke of their deaths, another couple, Drea Rose Laguillo and Sean Matteson, came forward claiming they had a rough idea of when the couple likely plummeted over the edge of the cliff.
Laguillo soon found out she unknowingly captured pink-haired Moorthy at 5.11pm that day.
Friends of Frankfurter (pictured) recalled how he said he wanted to replicate a photo he’d seen of a tourist in Brazil at Telegraph Rock. In reality, that image was actually an optical illusion, with the rock hanging just three-feet above a pathway below
According to the research, 20 to 30 people are swept away at Niagara Falls ever year, due to suicides, accidents, attempted stunts and instances when ‘people climb over the barriers to take a picture’
That photo made it very clear that Moorthy and Viswanath were perilously close to the edge of the drop just before their demise.
Nearly a year after their deaths, a toxicology report confirmed the pair was intoxicated when they fell.
The husband and wife both had intoxicating levels of ethyl alcohol, found in most alcoholic beverages, the Mariposa County coroner said.
The late couple were in the United States to study engineering, but also had a travel blog, Holidays and Happily Ever Afters.
At least seven falls at Grand Canyon National Park were ‘directly linked to photography,’ between 2014 and 2020, the data found.
Meanwhile, at Yellowstone National Park, falls from dangerous heights ’caused eight deaths between 2007 and 2023′ with ‘some involving individuals crossing safety barriers, possibly for photos,’ per the research.
In New York state, 20 to 30 people are swept away at Niagara Falls every year, due to suicides, accidents and attempted stunts.
‘There also several threads on Reddit mentioning people climb[ing] over the barriers to take a picture,’ the data concluded.