Why The Perfect Instagram Shot Just Isn’t Worth It

We've seen before that the quest for a totally unique Instagram can go too far, but this is just heartbreaking: Early Tuesday morning, Kasey Jones, a 26-year-old barista and recent transplant to New York, climbed out onto her fire escape, had too much to drink, and fell five stories to her death.

While Kasey's Instagram account, @zoradelora, does not show any rooftop images from the hours before the incident, her fondness for hanging on her fire escape was documented in earlier shots.

“They drink up there, that’s what they do,” Frances Guerrero, a neighbor of Jones', told the New York Post.

Hindsight is 20/20, but an Instagram of one of Jones' friends sitting near the edge of a rooftop, tagged #livingontheedge and #rooftopshenanigans, now seems much darker. For that matter, so do all precipitous shots.

Sadly, Jones' tragic death is not the first of its kind. Last August, Cindy Yeh, an intern at the Museum of Modern Art, was dancing at a rooftop party when she slipped, fell down four stories, and died. More recently, similar unfortunate incidents have occurred across the globe, in cities like Brisbane and Berkeley, California. This summer, we're bound to have sweltering nights that will make slipping out to the nearest rooftop, balcony, or even fire escape seem impossible to resist. And while outdoor space in the middle of the city may be a real estate dream, it's important to look more closely into just how safe yours actually is.