Man plunges to death while posing for photograph at Rakaia Gorge

A man has plunged to his death while getting his photograph taken near a sheer gorge in New Zealand’s South Island, becoming the latest person to die by accident in pursuit of an image.

The incident happened at Rakaia Gorge.

The Christchurch Press newspaper quoted a New Zealand Police spokesperson as stating “he’s wanted to get a photo with the gorge in the background, he’s got too close to the cliff edge and he appears to have slipped and fallen approximately 40 metres colliding with a tree.

“He was unresponsive and appears to have died at the scene.”

Police indicated that the accident appeared to have happened when the man, who had an intellectual disability, stepped off a grass embankment so friends could take a photograph from a different angle.

The risk of plunging inadvertently over cliffs while posing for photos, or while taking them, has existed since the invention of the camera. However, the popularity of ‘selfies’ has increased the hazard and cases are now reported regularly around the world. Tourists are susceptible because they take more pictures in unfamiliar terrain.

Last September, a Melbourne woman died in Norway after falling from a popular tourist attraction in the mountains while posing for a photo. She fell several hundred metres from the Trolltunga rock formation in southwest Norway.

In May, a Singaporean man plunged to his death from a cliff while trying to take a selfie on an island off the coast of Bali. He toppled backwards into the sea while taking a selfie during a holiday with eight friends in Nusa Lembongan.

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