TikTok boat jumping challenge leaves four dead in 6 months as Alabama officials fear more fatalities and casualties leading into summer as the fad becomes more popular.
Fame and validation at what cost? A new social media challenge is once again making its way among the giddy and fabulous set – albeit one that potentially comes with degrees of danger and self annihilation – and hence the thrill.
The challenge which revolves around jumping off the rear of moving water vessels and negotiating the havoc of rapid water turbulence is aptly named the ‘boat jumping challenge’.
Popularised on video platform TikTok, the TikTok boat jumping challenge and must try item, has led to rescuers warning that the dare comes with real risks – including breaking one’s own neck, drowning or other serious injury. And to be sure, officials fear the worse leading into the summer.
Fatalities and casualties
Reports the dailymail: ‘Those participating in the challenge launch themselves from the rear of a boat and into the wake behind it, as the boat continues to move.’
So popular has the dare devilling become, that Alabama officials have told of 4 people being killed in the last six months upon jumping into the water only to break their necks and incurring instant death.
And then there’s the drownings and near drownings.
Continues the dailymail: ‘Officials said in the last six months, they had to deal with four drownings that were ‘easily avoidable”.
@dayyachtcharters Would you like to be jumping off this boat right now? #boatjumping #yacht #charter #cabo #mexico #bahamas #seattle #cayman #yachtscayman #cancun #fyp ♬ What the Hell – Avril Lavigne
Seems a bit inconvenient if you ask this author. And yes entirely avoidable. But that would require being sensible. Not necessarily the easiest thing to practise as the world continues to shift into the paradigm of social media validation.
Explains Captain Jim Dennis with the the Childersburg Rescue Squad via WPDE: ‘Last six months we have had four drownings that were easily avoidable.
‘They were doing a TikTok challenge. It’s where you get in a boat going at a high rate of speed, you jump off the side of the boat, don’t dive, you’re jumping off feet first and you just kinda lean into the water.
TikTok boat jumping challenge that sees people leap off vessels moving at high speed is blamed for FOUR deaths in Alabama – as cop says victims broke their necks instantly. pic.twitter.com/2aCxvJZsRy
— Molly Ploofkins™ (@Mollyploofkins) July 9, 2023
‘Acting stupid in front of the camera…’
‘The four that we responded to when they jumped out of the boat, they literally broke their neck and, you know, basically an instant death.’
Continuing: ‘I think people, if they’re being filmed on camera, I think they’re more likely to do something stupid because they want to show off in front of their friends for social media.’
One video, captured along Lake Norman, North Carolina, shows five people jumping and black flipping into the water, just weeks after a middle aged man in May was instantly killed when the dare went horribly wrong
Needless to say the TikTok Water Boat Challenge is not the only challenge that has claimed lives or irrevocably ruined the lives of loved ones.
In April of this year, a 13 year old teen, Jacob Stevens died taking part in the Benadryl Challenge along with a 15 year old teen girl in August 2020 after ingesting multiple antihistamine tablets to induce hallucinations before posting videos of their experience.
Also not to be overlooked was an April episode which saw a 17 year old North Carolina teen left with 80% to his body when he took to holding a spray paint can and raising a lighter to it. The boy, Mason Dark continues to remain in hospital.
Will you be posting your Water Boat Challenge this summer too? Your life may depend on it …
