Photo of a Central Park late via Flickr user Mike G
Selfies are already to blame for ruining art museums, memorials, gyms, and vacations in general, and now, apparently, even Central Park. On Monday, a bunch of kids were trying to get a group selfie when they fell through the ice on a frozen pond near 59th Street and Central Park South and had to be rescued.According to NBC 4, two noble skateboarders cruising by saw the selfie-takers—who ranged in ages from ten to 16—on the ice and heard them splashing as they fell into the water. The skaters promptly dove in to help get them out."I look over, I saw six heads just trying to get to the shore," Bennett Jonas, one of the skating Samaritans told the broadcaster. "The back one was probably a good 20 yards from dry land."Jonas and the other skater, Ethan Turmbull, had successfully rescued all the kids by the time the New York Fire Department arrived at the scene. Six of the seven would-be selfie-takers were treated for hypothermia at nearby hospitals, and the FDNY posted a picture of a diver investigating the pond to ensure there were no other victims in its icy depths. There's no word on where the kids' parents were when they were potentially drowning in Central Park.
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In 2015, more people died from selfies than shark attacks, including people who fell off cliffs, were shot posing with guns, and one man who had a heart attack after falling down the stairs at the Taj Mahal. Things got so bad in Russia they launched a campaign for "safe selfies." The city of Pamplona, Spain, even outlawed them during its annual running of the bulls, and Mumbai, India, banned them at 16 of the city's major attractions after a spike in deaths.Maybe regulations for Central Park aren't far behind, or maybe kids should just think twice before going out onto a frozen pond on a 50-degree day.