Always watch your step. As much as we love your faces on our IG feed, we’d rather you stay alive than “capture the moment”.
A university student by the name of Deng tragically fell down a drop of 2,000 meters to her death from the observation deck of Hua Shan scenic area, China because she walked off the cliff while trying to take a selfie.
Source: Oriental Daily
According to Oriental Daily, Deng took many photos while she was at the attraction and even uploaded them on social media and sent them to her friends while chatting with them. However, later on in the afternoon, her friends began to get worried as she was unresponsive to their texts. When her family and the university failed to reach her, they quickly contacted authorities to help with the investigation.
It was only when the Hua Shan authorities were informed of Deng’s absence that they checked surveillance footage to confirm that the girl had fallen off the cliff.
Source: Oriental Daily
“In the video, I saw that there were five tourists and two staff members present at the time. The tourists took photos and enjoyed the scenery. Deng could be seen standing on the edge of the cliff with her back against the scenery so her selfie would overlook the background.”
“But because she wasn’t standing on stable ground and the guardrail wasn’t high enough to prevent her fall, she took a step backwards and fell from the top of the mountain.”
But the footage also revealed that the guardrail was less than half the height of an adult, barely surpassing the height of one’s legs.
Source: Oriental Daily
Deng’s family claimed that the guard rail separating the deck and the drop was too low, hence the management of the attraction should bear full responsibility for the poor girl’s death. However, the owners of the scenic spot have rejected this accusation and released a statement saying that, “she fell off the cliff because she lost her balance when taking a selfie.”
While they refuse to accept responsibility, the owner says she’s willing to provide 40,000 yuan (RM 23,000) worth of humanitarian aid to the grieving family during this time.
Be careful, guys! There should always be a limit to how far you’re willing to go “for the gram”.
