Italy outraged by train accident selfie
Young man posed in front of first aiders treating a woman struck by a train in Piacenza
Italians have responded with outrage to a photo of a man taking a selfie in front of a woman who had been struck by a train.
The young man in white shorts appears to throw a “V for victory” sign as he stands on the platform and angles his phone towards emergency personnel tending to a bleeding woman lying on the tracks at Piacenza station, in northern Italy.
The man was stopped by railway police officers on the scene and made to delete the image. However, it is the photo of the photo - taken on 26 May by journalist Giorgio Lambri - which has proven even more shocking.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Since Lambri first published the image on Sunday, it has set off something of a moral panic in Italy, with soul-searching opinion pieces questioning whether social media has warped society’s sense of decency.
The accident on the tracks may have been bloody and horrifying, but the “truly gruesome scene” was that taking place on the platform, says Italian news website Quotidiano.
For many commentators, the astonishing image of a young man happily posing in front of a grievously injured woman offered a striking juxtaposition of online connectivity and disconnect from real-life horror.
Writing for the magazine Famiglia Cristiana, psychotherapist Alberto Pellai said the incident captured the moment “where narcissism marries desensitisation”.
The Piacenza selfie is an extreme example of an “insane modern craze of documenting one’s presence as a grinning witness at every moment of life, whether tragic or comic”, writes La Stampa’s Gianluca Nicoletti, letting real life “run behind us like a film reel”.
The woman injured in the accident, a Canadian national, was taken to hospital, where one of her legs was amputated.
The cause of the accident is still being investigated, but local media report that she is thought to have fallen onto the tracks while disembarking from a train after a door opened on the wrong side.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
5 humorously efficient cartoons about Trump's DOGE
Artists take on Trump's minions, wasteful spending, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Rupert Murdoch's succession problem
Talking Point A court ruling has thrown the future leadership of News Corp and Fox wide open. What next?
By The Week UK Published
-
Diversity training: a victim of the 'war on woke'
Talking Point More and more US companies have phased out corporate DEI initiatives, and the incoming Trump administration is likely to fuel the cultural shift
By The Week UK Published
-
Why Assad fell so fast
The Explainer The newly liberated Syria is in an incredibly precarious position, but its too soon to succumb to defeatist gloom
By The Week UK Published
-
Romania's election rerun
The Explainer Shock result of presidential election has been annulled following allegations of Russian interference
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
Russia's shadow war in Europe
Talking Point Steering clear of open conflict, Moscow is slowly ratcheting up the pressure on Nato rivals to see what it can get away with.
By The Week UK Published
-
Cutting cables: the war being waged under the sea
In the Spotlight Two undersea cables were cut in the Baltic sea, sparking concern for the global network
By The Week UK Published
-
The nuclear threat: is Vladimir Putin bluffing?
Talking Point Kremlin's newest ballistic missile has some worried for Nato nations
By The Week UK Published
-
Russia vows retaliation for Ukrainian missile strikes
Speed Read Ukraine's forces have been using U.S.-supplied, long-range ATCMS missiles to hit Russia
By Arion McNicoll, The Week UK Published
-
Has the Taliban banned women from speaking?
Today's Big Question 'Rambling' message about 'bizarre' restriction joins series of recent decrees that amount to silencing of Afghanistan's women
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Cuba's energy crisis
The Explainer Already beset by a host of issues, the island nation is struggling with nationwide blackouts
By Rebekah Evans, The Week UK Published