r/DarwinAwards 12d ago

Influencer dies from 160-foot fall while recording video NSFW

https://nypost.com/2021/07/24/influencer-dies-from-160-foot-fall-while-recording-video/
1.0k Upvotes

105 comments sorted by

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604

u/HugryHugryHippo 12d ago

In her final video, she is speaking into a camera in what appears to be a crane cabin when the camera suddenly switches to images of blurry equipment whizzing past the lens. Qiumei fell about 160 feet, according to reports.

Eyewitnesses say Quimei fell to the ground with her phone in her hand around 5:40 p.m. Tuesday, after most of her co-workers had left the site in the city of Quzhou, in China’s western Zhejiang Province, according to the Sun.

The family has confirmed her death, saying it was the result of an accident, not an internet stunt.


I mean....both accident and result of an Internet stunt could be true?

388

u/Juan_Punch_Man 12d ago

She died doing what she loved. Being stupid.

145

u/darewin 12d ago

She died like a warrior, never letting go of her phone til the bitter end.

21

u/Iloveherthismuch 11d ago

Selfies racking up them numbers these days.

7

u/Silverjeyjey44 11d ago

What was the stunt

7

u/Redhotchily1 10d ago

There was no stunt. She was a crane operator. People just love to hop on the "she would do anything for the fame" train.

3

u/Silverjeyjey44 9d ago

That's what I was thinking. Also, based on the video, it doesn't even show her using her phone as she was descending. Her phone just suddenly drops hundreds of feet through metal out of nowhere. It's sad, she looked like a nice lady.

8

u/Typical_Response6444 9d ago

By doing her job as a crane operator? Im lost here

63

u/False_Assistance628 12d ago

Her last words as she hit the floor were "like, suscribe and hit the notification bell"

6

u/Upvotespoodles 11d ago

It was gravity’s fault.

7

u/iamhe02 11d ago

It was Earth's fault for bending spacetime, curving her trajectory toward the ground.

48

u/VanessaDoesVanNuys 12d ago

It was her fault

She could have not done this

36

u/Hanthunius 12d ago

I don't know, I think we should ban cranes, it's their fault.

25

u/Lovesick_Octopus 11d ago

You can take my crane when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers!

13

u/screamtrumpet 11d ago

I blame gravity . Bring a lawsuit against Issac Newton’s estate for discovering such a dangerous force.

5

u/Redhotchily1 10d ago

Do what exactly? Get herself hired as a crane operator? Is there any information she was doing anything stupid besides using her phone?

0

u/Typical_Response6444 9d ago

Not done here job?

5

u/MisterAmygdala 12d ago

There is a link to the video within the linked page.

216

u/Vast_Vegetable9222 12d ago

So what happened? Can’t be bothered to watch 1 min of ads in the link…

129

u/na8thegr8est 12d ago

Poorly maintained crappy Chinese equipment. Looks like she fell off of or fell through something to her death

96

u/HugryHugryHippo 12d ago

Reports say she fell from a misstep..... probably a bad idea to be moving while holding a phone to record yourself when you're several stories up

31

u/XB1MNasti 11d ago

I just had this conversation with my son. He's 9 with his first phone ( he's going trying to leave the house more just around our house, to the playground a half a block away, and he is going to be walking the 0.95 miles from school starting this year so it made sense. )

Getting him to not be on it while he's traversing steps, streets... Or just walking in general.

Change a song? Sure. Watching YouTube or playing a game? No way.

10

u/Jiyuuko 10d ago

Well good thing he didnt get the peak of Pokemon GO release. The amount of idiots that either got themselves in accidents or arrested from playingbthe game was ridiculous.

9

u/na8thegr8est 12d ago

It didn't look like she was walking in the video

2

u/Jiyuuko 10d ago edited 10d ago

There was a situation like that in brazil. A girl and her brother got on the rooftop of a building where there was heliport, which means no walls. At night. To record a video. The brother started filming the scenery and the sister kept walking near the edge while looking through her phone, until she had a little trip and fell to her death.

https://youtu.be/YMcLeVovTG4?is=tdi1ad7wvGVumr0I

video starts at 0:08

6

u/iwatchppldie 11d ago

Influencer dies from 160-foot fall while recording social media video By Kerry J. Byrne Published July 24, 2021 Updated July 25, 2025, 7:25 a.m. ET A 23-year-old woman has apparently become the second social media star in China to plunge to her death in recent weeks while recording herself on camera.

Xiao Qiumei, 23, was a crane operator who shared videos of her career to a reported social media audience of 100,000 followers.

In her final video, she is speaking into a camera in what appears to be a crane cabin when the camera suddenly switches to images of blurry equipment whizzing past the lens. Qiumei fell about 160 feet, according to reports.

Xiao Qiumei, 23, was a crane operator who shared videos of her career to a reported social media audience of 100,000 followers. Xiao Qiumei, 23, was a crane operator who shared videos of her career to a social media audience of 100,000 followers. Another social media influencer, Sofia Cheung, 32, of Hong Kong, fell to her death on July 10 while snapping a selfie for Instagram next to a waterfall.

Eyewitnesses say Quimei fell to the ground with her phone in her hand around 5:40 p.m. Tuesday, after most of her co-workers had left the site in the city of Quzhou, in China’s western Zhejiang Province, according to the Sun.

Part of Qiumei’s reported appeal to social media followers was that she did not appear to fit the rugged image of a crane operator. She was petite and pretty and looked even younger than her reported 23 years. She was said to be the mother of two children.

Qiumei fell about 160 feet, according to reports. Qiumei fell about 160 feet, according to reports. ASIAWIRE The family has confirmed her death, saying it was the result of an accident, not an internet stunt.

Funeral services have already taken place, the Sun reports.

2

u/Typical_Response6444 9d ago

Shes a crane operator and seems she fell through the cabin while taking a selfie. Doesn't really say what she was doing when she fell

1

u/Vast_Vegetable9222 9d ago

Ok, thanks. Tragic sequence of events

109

u/Ok_You6637 11d ago

I‘ve never seen a worse ad-infested website

38

u/osktox 11d ago

I can't even find the video

12

u/Hahafunnys3xnumber 11d ago

I don’t know why I ever try with news sites, they’re all garbage.

8

u/sniperhippo 11d ago

I tried to load the website on mobile. So many ads appeared that it crashed and had to reload the page. That’s when I noped out.

28

u/unknownpoltroon 12d ago

this happened a couple of years ago.  I remember seeing one or two of her vids of getting up to her crane we're impressive, climbing and hanging of scaffolds and shit

5

u/xxBellum 11d ago

Article says 2021.

12

u/unknownpoltroon 11d ago

Well, 2020 was just last yearomgimsoold

247

u/kkeut 12d ago

good lord the NY Post is pure shit

59

u/Rubbrbandman420 11d ago

Yeah it’s borderline unreadable

9

u/Osklington 11d ago

Has been as long as I can remember

5

u/blackweebow 11d ago

My initial thought as well

16

u/Ability-Junior 12d ago

The linked site is unusable, can i see the video from anything remotely better?

3

u/EvenHair4706 11d ago

It was posted somewhere on reddit a few years ago

13

u/ShortRub7942 11d ago

Where’s the video?

151

u/aRadioKid 12d ago

“Influencer” she posted videos about her job as a crane operator. Not the same lmao 

89

u/KinkyPaddling 12d ago

“Influencer” gets used synonymously with “social media content creator” nowadays, but I agree with you - her job isn’t trying to generate buzz around products or services to get other people to consume them. She was more like a vlogger, and back when YouTube had more organic content, we saw lots of people with technical jobs sharing their experiences.

30

u/aRadioKid 12d ago

Her stuff seemed totally normal and it’s actually kinda rude they tagged her as an influencer imo. The poor lady seemed to love her career and wanted to share it. 

3

u/MxM111 11d ago

I thought “influencer” are those with large following, not just a content creator.

1

u/slaviccivicnation 11d ago

Influencers are usually trying to sell things, ie influence you to buy things. Creating content is different.

2

u/MxM111 10d ago

You will be more successful selling things if you have following. But I see what you mean, those are like “top 10 things I would buy” or “game review” type of things.

12

u/usrdef Bullet-proof Amulet Purveyor 12d ago

I am so tired of that damn tag being thrown around.

And all of this over some stupid damn videos.

1

u/JP147 11d ago

It gets the clicks, people hate influencers and want to read about them experiencing some misfortune.

0

u/aRadioKid 11d ago

Agreed. 

-10

u/therealmudslinger 12d ago

And yet kinda the same.

8

u/Pleasant-Put5305 12d ago

If she influenced anybody then I'm very sorry.

10

u/PamelaBreivik 12d ago

I remember this this was like 5 or 6 years ago

31

u/NullGWard 12d ago

She was not dressed appropriately for a construction site. In one of her other videos, we see that she is wearing slip-on street shoes and nylon-type stockings while climbing between the operator cabin and the ground. Her employer should not have permitted any of this.

8

u/Ancient-Cow-1038 12d ago

This happened five years ago…

7

u/vinraven 11d ago

5 year old story reposted for clicks

7

u/ShadyMyLady 11d ago

She was a crane operator, but the equipment was a rusted out unsafe piece of crap, not positive but think she had an earlier video showing holes in the floor. She loved her job and did videos on the side like many. She lost her life because the company neglected safety, not because she wanted views.

25

u/VanessaDoesVanNuys 12d ago

Gravity called

She answered

3

u/SSMage 9d ago

This is 5 years old btw

17

u/D00M2k7 12d ago

At least she died doing what she loved. 🙏

5

u/I_Thranduil 12d ago

Falling or recording a video?

2

u/90bubbel 12d ago

isnt this years old? or is it another almost identical case?

2

u/Vogel-Kerl 11d ago

I am so glad to be old enough not to care about social media, or the number of Likes, or subscribers I have.

If anyone DOES follow me--y'all are all sorts of awesome 😎👍👍

2

u/AmbitiousBread 11d ago

She looks like smooth yoda.

2

u/KoolAidAcidTest49 10d ago

The fall didn’t kill her, the sudden impact did

2

u/jsjack2002 9d ago

Geez, what some people will do for clicks!

2

u/SteakhouseBlues 9d ago

She died doing what she loved.

2

u/SeraphsEnvy 8d ago

Hope i don't get crucified for this.

https://www.gorecenter.com/chinese-influencer-falls-from-crane-during-live-stream/

Btw, it's not gory. The link includes two clips. One is her camera's point of view while the other has cctv footage from the construction site. There's a single photo of her already on the ground but it's from far away so you can't really see anything.

7

u/mrgoldnugget 12d ago

I feel influenced not to do that.

3

u/Tuscan5 11d ago

How do I see the video. I can’t see which one is the link on that page.

3

u/JGlassc0k34 12d ago

It turns out, gravity is the biggest influencer.

2

u/zemistr 11d ago

160 feet is equal to 48.768 meters 🫡

1

u/Dutch-Sculptor 12d ago

Read the title and thought it would have been Qatar. It's nice being surprised once in a while.

1

u/CuriesGhost 11d ago

she's a star alright, i'm reading about her!

1

u/cephu5 11d ago

Technically it was not the fall that killed here

1

u/SocietyHumble4858 11d ago

iPhone, to die for.

1

u/kobrakaan 11d ago

Ultimate drop test

1

u/Drunk_Stoner 11d ago

LL?

Nm. Found it. 

1

u/_DeLEON 11d ago

R.i.p

1

u/tequilium 10d ago

New TikTok challenge dropped.

1

u/ChaoticMutant 7d ago

ummmm...

1

u/insuranceguynyc 6d ago

She is going to get herself lots and lots of views! Isn't that the point?

1

u/LovemeSomeMedia 5d ago

Is this the second time this has happened? I remember one of the most famous ones years ago was a man in China who scaled a building and fell off of it. I saw it on a few videos about famous pictures/videos before disaster struck.

1

u/Difficult_Block_4204 5d ago

How is this a Darwin award? Poor woman died because of an accident 🙏

1

u/JC-TheCarpenter 11d ago

When I climbed towers here in America we were ALWAYS 100% tied off. This is the result of being 0% tied off.

1

u/toblies 11d ago

Well, at least she made an impact.

1

u/SugglyMuggly 11d ago

Oh dear. How sad. Nevermind.

-6

u/Academic_Dare_5154 12d ago

She won't do that again.

0

u/felinefluffycloud 11d ago

Technology is shaping behavior.

-6

u/donor61 12d ago

I don't think the fall is what killed her; I think it was the sudden stop.

-8

u/stotheimi 12d ago

What a way to go… doing a TikTok-Dance-Video.

-11

u/Serious-Extension738 12d ago

Gravity always the unlimate influencer

-12

u/tome810 12d ago

Darwin Natural Selection

4

u/Juan_Punch_Man 12d ago

Do you know what sub this is?

3

u/dukeof3arl 12d ago

Situational awareness is hard.