Teen falls 50 feet from bridge while trying to take selfie

DALLAS (WTVD) -- Trying to capture the perfect selfie almost cost a Texas teen his life. Triston Bailey, 18, is lucky to be alive after falling off a bridge mid-selfie.

"You see it all over social media," Bailey said of people climbing to great heights for that perfect picture. "On Instagram and Facebook, people with really cool cameras. We wanted to have our own."

Bailey and his friends wanted to post a really cool picture of the Dallas skyline, so they climbed the Margaret McDermott Bridge. They say Bailey went over the bridge's concrete barriers and fell 50 feet trying to take the photo for social media. Bailey doesn't remember the fall.

"They heard me scream, and they thought I was joking," Bailey said. "I broke my pelvis, I had a rib fracture, a punctured lung, I broke my face a whole bunch and I had lacerated my spleen."

A study from researchers found at least 250 people worldwide have died in the last six years while taking selfies. More than 70 percent of the victims were men in their early 20s.