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A Lesson Un-Learned: Two “Influencers” Drown After Refusing to Wear Life Jackets So Not to Ruin Their Tans
Aline Tamara Moreira de Amorim, 37, and Beatriz Tavares da Silva Faria, 27, were part of a group returning from a yacht party when their speedboat capsized in the area known as Garganta do Diabo – or the Devil’s Throat – which is filled with rapids and waterfalls. Both were repeatedly told by the boat’s captain to wear their life preservers since the vessel would be overcrowded and navigating rough waters.
According to the captain, the women declined their life jackets because they thought the potentially life-saving flotation devices would interfere with their tanning. “Some didn’t want to put them on because they were taking selfies,” said Sao Vincente Police Commissioner Marcos Alexandra Alfino after speaking with the captain. “They said that they get in the way of their tanning.”
The speedboat captain said he’d been pressured into taking six people back from the yacht party, when his boat could only accommodate five. Hit by rough waves, the boat overturned and the passengers were tossed into the water. One, Vanessa Audrey da Silva, who managed to get her life jacket on, managed to cling onto a rock until she was rescued. “There was a moment in the water when no one could see anyone,” she said. “I was fighting for my life.”
Police said Faria’s body drifted out to sea and was recovered by Brazil’s Maritime Firefighters, while Amorium’s body washed up on the coast of Itaquitanduva Beach nearly a week later. Amorim’s brother says his sister didn’t know how to swim.
The importance of wearing life jackets is well established. According to the US Coast Guard 2022 Recreational Boating Statistics report , among the 636 boating deaths in the US in 2022 where the cause of death was known, 75% of the victims drowned. Where life jacket use or nonuse was known, 85% of those drowning victims were reported as not wearing a life jacket. These percentages have stayed grimly comparable for the last several decades .
The fact that the two women chose not to wear life jackets because they were taking selfies and the flotation devices would interfere with their tanning, points out a new set of social media risks.
Slate reports that according to a 2022 study published in the Journal of Travel Medicine , there were 379 selfie-related deaths worldwide between 2008 and 2021. That’s more than 4 times the number of people who died by shark bite in the same period. And still that figure is likely an underestimate, because the numbers are pulled mostly from media reports, which don’t cover all deaths and can be hard for researchers to find.
Many of the selfie-related deaths were related to falling off cliffs. The recent tragedy in Brazil is the first we are aware of related to tanning.
Thanks to Alaric Bond for contributing to this post.
A Lesson Un-Learned: Two “Influencers” Drown After Refusing to Wear Life Jackets So Not to Ruin Their Tans — 1 Comment
Candidates for the Darwin Award.
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'I nearly died on yacht with influencers who refused life jackets to avoid ruining selfies'
Two influencers, who reportedly refused to wear lifejackets because they didn't want to ruin their selfies, were tragically found dead after their overcrowded boat sank off the coast of brazil after a yacht party.
- 09:50, 30 Oct 2024
Survivors have shared the terrifying moment they threw themselves onto the rocks after their boat capsized.
Two influencers tragically drowned after an overloaded boat sank off the coast of Brazil last month. Victims, Aline Tamara Moreira de Amorim, 37, and Beatriz Tavares da Silva Faria, 27, weren't wearing lifejackets when a huge wave hit the boat and they were submerged by the water.
Beatriz's body was found first drifting out to sea and was recovered by Brazil's Maritime Firefighters, while Aline was found dead a week later, washed up on the coast of Itaquitanduva Beach. Local police are now trying to establish if their deaths were a tragic accident or could have been prevented.
One of the survivors, Vanessa Audrey da Silva, recalled the horror moment the boat capsized on September 29. She told local media that a group of friends and influencers had met up to party on a luxury yacht and spent the day cruising and drinking.
They later split into two groups to get back to shore, but one was swamped by a wave on the return journey. Vanessa said she managed to scramble into a life jacket and survived by clinging to rocks. She said: "There was a moment in the water when no one could see anyone. I was fighting for life."
Another survivor, Camila Alves de Carvalho, says she clutched a life jacket in her hands and clung on for dear life. She said: "There were very strong waves, we almost died. We didn't know how to swim. I knew that I couldn't take it for long. I hurt my foot and swallowed a lot of water. We threw ourselves into the rocks."
Now a month on from their deaths, Sao Vincente police commissioner Marcos Alexandre Alfino says the influencers had refused to wear life jackets. He said: "Some didn't want to put them on because they were taking selfies. They said that they get in the way of their tanning."
The boat's skipper, not named by police, gave extensive interviews after the tragedy and revealed he had been ordered to take six influencers to the shore, despite his boat having a maximum capacity of five passengers. So when the craft was hit by a huge wave, it was too heavy to ride it out and began to sink.
The skipper told police he had tried desperately to save everyone. Commissioner Alfino explained: "All this is being determined very calmly to conclude if the fatalities were based on recklessness or negligence."
Heartbreakingly, mother-of-one Aline, who could not swim, posted her last social media image hours before she died, as she posed on the boat in a bikini. Among those who survived was Daniel Goncalves Ferreira, Gabriela Santos Lima and Natan Cardoso Soares da Silva.
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