Russia starts ‘safe selfie’ campaign after dozens of deaths

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Selfies shouldn't kill you.

That may seem like common sense, but a new initiative in Russia has been launched to remind people of that fact following dozens of deaths and hundreds of accidents caused by daredevils and dunderheads attempting to capture novel photos of themselves.

Earlier this year, two men in the Ural Mountains in Russia took a selfie of themselves holding a hand grenade they had pulled the pin out of. The phone with the selfie was the only thing that survived, the Guardian reports.

In May, a woman in Moscow accidentally shot herself while taking a selfie holding a handgun, according to U.K. publication Metro.

Last weekend, a Russian woman died after falling from a bridge she was trying to take a selfie on, reports RT.

"Each of these cases could have been prevented," says an online statement from the Russian Interior Ministry, according to the Christian Science Monitor. "When a person is trying to take a picture of themselves, they become distracted, lose their balance, they don't look around and don't feel in danger." The Ministry's public awareness campaign uses the classic image of a red circle with a line through it to portray selfies people shouldn't take. They include stick figures taking selfies in front of trains and hanging off roofs.

"Unfortunately we have noted recently that the number of accidents caused by lovers of self-photography is constantly increasing," an aide to the interior minister told The Guardian. "Since the beginning of the year we are talking about some hundred cases of injuries for sure."

The campaign's motto is, "Even a million 'likes' on social media are not worth your life and well-being."

It's a simple message that many people should be reminded of, not just those in Russia.

Our obsession with taking novel selfies too often overrides common sense, whether it was the pilot in Colorado who lost control of his plane while taking a selfie, killing himself and his passenger, or the three college friends who died in India in January after being struck by a speeding train. They reportedly wanted to get photos of themselves standing as close to an oncoming train as possible.