Sri Lanka to Arrest People for Selfies Following 12 Year Old’s Death

After the death of two brothers in the capital city of Colombo, Sri Lankan railway officials have had enough of selfies.

The brothers, 12 and 24, died Sunday while taking selfies on the picturesque coastal railroad tracks.

The younger was decapitated by the train. His older brother had just arrived home from Singapore to be reunited with family. He was also struck, and subsequently died on the scene. They were residents of Anuradhapura.

A String of Mobile Related Tragedies

Earlier that day, a pair of newlyweds on the same line were struck by a train.

They too were taking selfies on the tracks. The man was killed instantly; his widow is still in intensive care.

Railway spokesman, Wijeya Samarasinghe, said there have been 28 deaths on Sri Lanka’s railway so far this year. Most of them, he said, are the result of mobile phones.

“We are launching a campaign this week to deploy our security staff to arrest those walking on the tracks and taking selfies in front of moving trains,” Samarasinghe told AFP.

“There are some who want to post videos and pictures of themselves in front of moving trains.

“Unfortunately, some are unable to get out of the way in time and get killed.”

Careless Selfies Leading to Deaths Worldwide

Sri Lanka is a South Asian leader in mobile phone use. It introduced them on the market in 1989, before any of its neighbors.

The leader in selfie-related deaths, however, is India. A joint study by Carnegie Mellon University and Indraprastha Institute of Information Delhi has found that 76 ‘killfies’ occurred in India over a two year period. 9 of those were train related.

To combat deaths and injuries related to careless selfie-snapping, police in Mumbai have designated 16 ‘no selfie zones’ across the city.

Behind India are Pakistan, the United States, and Russia, with under ten selfie deaths each over the same period.