'Not worth your life': TikTok boat-jumping challenge turns deadly in US

A new TikTok trend, which involves jumping off a boat moving at high speed, has claimed the lives of at least four people including a father in Alabama, US. The participants broke their necks and drowned after jumping into the water, reported the New York Post, quoting authorities.

Videos have surfaced on TikTok that show people jumping from the rear of a boat and into the turbulent water as part of the dangerous challenge.

According to Captain Jim Dennis of the Childersburg Rescue Squad, four people have died while doing the TikTok challenge, dubbed “boat jumping”, in the last six months.

“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,” Cpt. Jim Dennis told WBMA.

Captain Dennis shared that people end up breaking their necks when they jump from the boat. He said the victims in all the four cases they responded to were men including a father. Captain Dennis said that the father was on the boat with his three children and wife when the mishap happened in February. “Unfortunately, she recorded his death,” he added.

Another such incident took place in May which claimed the life of a middle-aged man, he added.

Expressing concern over the TikTok challenge, Captain Dennis said they have “seen this pattern emerge over the last two years and it’s sporadic”. He urged people to not participate in the challenge as “it’s not worth your life”.

He added that people risk their lives in such challenges because they want to “show off” on social media. “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,” he told ABC7.

He advised people to dial 911 if their loved ones don’t resurface after jumping into the water and try to stay in the area.

According to Gail Kulp, Executive Director of the Sea Tow Foundation, hitting the water at high speed is akin to hitting concrete. “It is going to be like you have fallen from heights on a concrete sidewalk. Water is not soft to land on when you are going at speed,” Kulp told WJAR.

Kulp added that the adventure can lead to a broken neck or broken bones and the victim is most likely to drown in the absence of a life jacket.

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