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For some reason, ever since being unleashed on the world TikTok has been the place for dangerous social media challenges to flourish.
The latest ill-advised social media challenge to cause catastrophic injuries is the boat jumping challenge which has left at least four people dead.
This particular challenge involves jumping into the water from the back of a boat traveling at a high rate of speed.
“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,” Cpt. Jim Dennis, with the Childersburg Rescue Squad, told WPDE News.
Dennis added, “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.”
He says people jumping from these boats they end up breaking their necks when they hit the water.
“The four people that we responded to when they jumped off of the boat, they literally broke their neck and, you know, basically an instant death,” he told TODAY.
Dennis said all of the people who died in his area trying the stunt were men.
One of the men was a father with his three children and wife on the boat.
“Unfortunately, she recorded his death,” Dennis said.
As one avid boater who knows what it feels like to hit the water at high speeds after growing up skiing, told WPDE News, “When you hit the water, it’s almost like hitting concrete at that speed. So, nothing good is going to come from hitting water at that speed.”
TikTok, in response to the boat jumping challenge deaths, stated, “It’s not accurate to report this as a TikTok challenge” and that they “can’t comment on something that isn’t a trend on our platform.”
UPDATE: A TikTok spokesperson sent us these quotes…
“On Monday, July 3, a news story was shared regarding “first responders warning against a deadly boating TikTok trend after recent drownings” in Alabama. However, please be advised the information released to the news outlet was incorrect. The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency’s (ALEA) Marine Patrol Division does not have any record(s) of boating or marine-related fatalities in Alabama that can be directly linked to TikTok or a trend on TikTok. One individual was fatality injured after jumping from a moving vessel in 2020 and a similar marine-related fatality occurred in 2021, however, both fatalities cannot be linked to TikTok.” – Statement from Alabama Law Enforcement Agency
“It got blown way out of proportion,” Dennis said of the publicity, which was even a topic of discussion Monday on the Today show. “If there’s data supporting that (boat jumping deaths in Alabama), I don’t have that.” – Childersburg Rescue Squad Capt. Jim Dennis