Woman Walks Off Pier While Checking Facebook

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A woman walking on a pier in Australia wasn’t paying attention where she was going:

A Taiwanese tourist had to be rescued after accidentally walking off a pier in the Australian city of Melbourne while checking her Facebook page.

The woman tumbled from St Kilda’s pier into Port Phillip Bay late on Monday night.

Police were alerted to the incident by a witness and rescued her in a speedboat after about 20 minutes.

The woman, who apologised, was taken to hospital for observation but police said she was fine.

Senior Constable Dean Kelly of the water police said officers found her floating metres from the pier.

“She was still out in the water laying on her back in a floating position because she told us later that she couldn’t swim,” the Australian Broadcasting Corporation quoted him as saying.

“She still had her mobile phone in her hand and initially she apologised… she said ‘I was checking my Facebook page on the phone and I’ve fallen in’.”

On a happy note, she managed to hold on to her phone while in the water.

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Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. Dave Schuler says:

    A short pier, presumably?

  2. Rafer Janders says:

    I’d love to see her latest status update….

  3. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @Dave Schuler: And a long walk, no doubt.

  4. OzarkHillbilly says:

    Facebook can be hazardous to one’s health.

  5. JKB says:

    Ah, but did she tweet about it?

  6. JKB says:

    I used to have to keep after the junior officers to get their head out of the radar and GPS and look at the big surround screen we called the windows. It was worse when the radars went rasterscan with a roller-ball. Too much like a video game.

  7. Tillman says:

    There’s a water police?

  8. Jenos Idanian #13 says:

    356 fish liked this update.

  9. Franklin says:

    So this is how human civilization ends …

  10. Rafer Janders says:

    Pei Ming: is in Australiaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!!!

  11. al-Ameda says:

    Ridiculous, right?

    Not so much. Every morning – as I board the ferry to cross the San Francisco Bay – about 50% of the people have their head down, and they’re staring at the smartphone screens, as they begin to board the boat. Honestly, if you took down a railing I swear that some of them would probably walk right off the gangplank into the bay.