Woman’s Selfie Leads To Darwin Award Nomination – Almost

A Sacramento-area woman’s decision to take an unforgettable selfie has led to her being the latest nominee for this year’s Darwin Awards. The Darwin Awards are given out each year to honor those that have decided to remove themselves from the human gene pool through their own stupid actions.

The woman, who’s name has not been released, is expected to survive after she fell off a restricted area of the Foresthill Bridge near Auburn, California while trying to take a selfie, the Placer County Sheriff’s Office said. Officers said she, and a group of her friends were walking on the catwalk underneath the 730-foot-tall bridge when she decided it would be a great place to take a selfie. While it is unclear just what happened, she appears to have lost her footing and fell 60 feet onto a trail below. The woman was airlifted to Sutter Roseville Medical Center for treatment, but at this time the extent of her injuries has not been released.

woman falls

According to Sheriff’s officials, the catwalk and walkways under the bridge are closed to the public, and clearly marked as “Restricted”. Officers said that anyone caught on the catwalks is either cited or arrested for trespassing. But that fact doesn’t seem to impress many visitors to the structure.

One such visitor is Rachael Daniels, who admits to being afraid of heights, but she said going through the restricted area is the “thing to do.” “Look, you can go stand right here and take a beautiful picture,” Daniels said. “You don’t have to go stand on a catwalk, underneath a 730-foot bridge to take that picture.”

Auburn resident Ciara McKenzie said. “This is just like what’s going to keep happening because people are just trying to impress their viewers.” Meanwhile, deputies hope it’s a lesson learned so no one else will try the stunt. Be safe and tour the bridge from the sidewalks above,” the Placer County Sheriff’s Office wrote on its Facebook page. “This young lady is very lucky to be alive and the consequences could have been worse for her, her friends and her family.”

It’s not the first time the Placer County Sheriff’s Office has dealt with people illegally on the bridge’s underbelly. Dozens of people were cited in February 2015 for trespassing on the bridge’s catwalk — 34 people at two separate points during the same day. Just a few days later, four more teens were caught and ticketed.

Sheriff’s spokesperson Dena Erwin said: “I’d say over a normal year, we hand out a few citations for the same thing. One misstep and there is no surviving a 730-foot fall. (The daredevils) are not just out there walking — they are getting braver. There’s peer pressure, so when they are out there, they are doing stupid things. We really want this to stop before someone dies.”