‘Death By Selfie Stick’ Isn’t Just A Great Band Name, Someone’s Now Died From Selfie Stick Related Injuries

Official cause of death: *lightning strike. But when we examine what led to that lightning strike things get murky, because investigators now believe a selfie stick directly caused the lethal strike by acting as a lightning rod. So, we now live in a world where selfie sticks are actually causing deaths. I think the only appropriate course of action is to now ban selfie sticks worldwide, even in places where lightning is rarely seen. We all need to get in line with Disney World’s new policy of forbidding selfie sticks on rides, only in this situation I’m talking about the ‘Great Ride of Life’. NOTE: I am NOT talking about the great ride known as ‘reverse cowgirl’, selfie sticks should NEVER be banned from that ride.

Also, if any of you bros are now planning on naming your new band ‘Death By Selfie Stick’ I want some royalties, dammit.

The UK’s Telegraph reports:

A walker who was killed by a bolt of lightning during a thunderstorm on the Brecon Beacons may have been struck because he was carrying a selfie stick, it has been claimed.
Sources close to the rescue said one of the dead men had been carrying a metal selfie stick, which may have attracted an electrical strike.
It emerged on Monday that one of the victims was leading children on a Duke of Edinburgh awards scheme.
The man, who was in his 50s, is thought to have been a Duke Of Edinburgh (DofE) Award assessor. The second fatality was a male walker who was walking up the Cribyn peak when he was caught in the storm.
It is not known which victim was carrying the selfie stick, which are extendable arms designed to allow the owner to take a photo of themselves on their smartphone.

He was flown to hospital by rescue helicopter along with two other casualties hit by separate lightning strikes on different parts of the mountain.
One man injured by a separate lightning bolt on Sunday has left hospital after suffering temporary paralysis caused by the lightning.
A fourth man is still being treated for burns at a specialist unit in Swansea’s Morriston Hospital.
All four of the men were from England, Dyfed-Powys Police have revealed.

I have to admit that I’m pretty ignorant of lightning patterns in the UK. Up until now I’d never heard of lightning storms so severe that 4 people could be hit by lightning in the same storm. But that’s not what we’re here to talk about today, what we’re talking about is DEATH BY SELFIE STICK.

FACT: We cannot say for certain that the metal rod otherwise known as a selfie stick ACTUALLY acted as a lightning rod, but we also cannot say for certain that it didn’t.

I think the notion of a metal rod acting, well, as a metal rod does and conducting electricity is MUCH MORE LIKELY than just assuming this was merely a coincidence. This is a very sad story, someone lost their life and others are critically injured. All I’m saying is there’s a chance some of this tragedy could have been avoided in the absence of selfie sticks. For the record, the chances of being struck by lightning throughout the course of a lifetime is 1 in 12,000 …which is a lot more likely than I ever assumed.

Ditch the sticks. This is not a good look, not a good look at all: