New Zealand trains to close outdoor viewing carriages because of selfies

KiwiRail's Great Journeys of New Zealand, which transports tourists through some of the country's most beautiful places, announced in April that it would be doing away with its outdoor viewing carriages because of several "near misses."

"A review carried out over recent months revealed an increasing number of passengers putting themselves and others in danger by leaning out of the carriage to take photographs," Katie McMahon, the rail service's "Director of Zero Harm," told CNN Travel in a statement.

"Despite the number of signs and announcements on board our trains pointing out the dangers of this, we have seen passengers leaning out with selfie sticks, iPads and their bodies, often unaware of an approaching tunnel which could cause a tragic incident for themselves, and others in the carriage."

 

Great Journeys of New Zealand operates four major train routes through the country, including the Coastal Pacific (which runs between Christchurch to Picton on the South Island) and the TranzAlpine (which goes through the Canterbury Plains).

KiwiRail is planning to revamp the carriages to make them safer while still providing gorgeous views of the scenery that New Zealand is famous for. Currently, there's no timeline for when and how this will happen.

However, it's not only New Zealand where selfies and their takers are at risk of injury or death, or where local authorities have had to take measures to prevent dangerous photo-taking.

According to a study carried out by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in 2018, India has the world's highest number of selfie-related deaths.

Some of those fatalities resulted in the city of Mumbai establishing "no-selfie zones."

And it's not only humans who are in danger.

In Holland, farmers have complained that selfie-takers have trampled their precious tulip beds, while a selfie-taker who destroyed a sculpture in a Portuguese museum while attempting to climb it faced jail time.