Dubai's Selfie 'Drive': Dh200 fine

You will be fined Dh200 and will earn four black points on your driving licence if you are caught taking a selfie while driving in Dubai.

This, of course, is a rather a small price to pay for the offence because, in the worst case scenario, you could get hurt and injure others as your focus diverts from the road ahead to the tiny screen in your hand.
 
Dubai Police told Emirates 24|7 that taking a selfie is treated as the same violation as using a hand-held mobile phone while driving; so the penalty for both is the same.
 
Taking pictures should be about enjoying and celebrating life, but selfies have been responsible for serious accidents and deaths in the world, despite warnings by the authorities.
 
The selfie craze has resulted in several fatal accidents in the UAE too.
 
To tackle the issue, Sharjah Police had organised an awareness programme titled ‘Taking a selfie can end your life ... selfies are a danger that you have to stop practicing’.
 
The country’s authorities have undertaken such programmes repeatedly in the past few years to raise awareness and educate residents of the risks involved.
 
Parents in the UAE are also being called upon to play a positive role in educating their children about the fatal consequences of taking selfies in dangerous situations.
 
The risks of taking a selfie dangerously are not limited to just while you are at the wheels.
 
The fascination of clicking yourself in a dangerous situation may get you many ‘likes’ on social media, but can also lead to death.
 
Last year, there were several selfie death cases reported globally.

A young South African woman died after falling from Northcliff Hill in Johannesburg while attempting to take a selfie, while three Indian students died trying to take a daredevil selfie on the tracks with an oncoming train in the background.

These are just two of the several incidents that highlight the problem.
 
To promote safety, many individuals have taken upon themselves to educate people on the risks involved while taking a selfie when you are driving or otherwise.
 
A website www.SelfieToDieFor.org is trying to create awareness on this and aims to save selfie-crazy people from accidents.
 
#SelfieToDieFor is an educative movement to create awareness on the life hazards of taking selfies at risky and life threatening locations.
 
The campaign is conceptualised with an objective to drive a mass movement and appeal the youth to click selfies responsibly.

After all, you need to be around to count the huge number of ‘likes’ on your selfie post, don't you?

(Image via Shutterstock)

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