Caught on camera: Woman distracted on phone falls into river and drowns

A woman, who was too obsessed with her mobile phone, died after she tripped and fell into a river, drowning in the process.

The incident, which happened in China's Zhejiang province in Dec 2015, was captured on surveillance camera.

Footage showed the woman strolling in the middle of the road initially, eyes glued on her phone.

She then veered dangerously close towards the edge of the river, seemingly unaware of her surroundings.

Moments later, she fell into the river and drowned in under a minute.

CCTV News identified the woman as Wang, a 28-year-old migrant worker and mother of two.

Wang's husband discovered her body in the river as he was looking for her the next morning, spotting her shoe floating on the river initially.

Explaining to thepaper.cn that the river is only chest-deep, Zhou Renjun, the police officer in charge of the case added that the river was also filled with thick sludge, which may have led to the tragedy.

Fatal incidents caused by distraction due to smartphones have been well documented in recent years. Notably, selfies have killed more people than sharks attacks in 2015.

A Pakistani man was crushed to death on Dec 15, 2015, after being hit by a fast moving train while attempting to take a selfie with it on the track.

On Feb 4, 2015, US investigators said that a pilot crashed his aircraft after he was distracted taking selfies in the cockpit. His 29-year-old passenger was also killed when the Cessna 150k smashed into a field.

The narcissistic endeavour has become so deadly that there is a dedicated page on Wikipedia documenting a list of selfie-related injuries and deaths.

A 2010 Reuters report said that in between 2001 to 2007, over 16,000 people may have been killed by drivers distracted talking or texting on their mobile phones.

grongloh@sph.com.sg