Man Following Wife Out Alone Using Drone Splits Views: 'Don't Feel Safe'

A video of a husband's plan to keep his wife safe while she goes out running has gone viral on TikTok, with over 1.9 million views.

In the footage, user Ella Davidson, 21, can be seen running down an empty concrete country road in Utah, lined by trees and woodland, with hills on the horizon, while a drone follows her from above.

The video explains: "When you don't feel safe running alone so your husband follows you with his drone," which she says in the caption was "his idea."

The video has split opinion online, with many TikTok users applauding the ingenuity, while also lamenting the need for such excessive safeguarding provisions. One user wrote: "So sad that this is our reality tho," to which Davidson replied: "So true."

It's unclear what the drone is keeping Ms. Davidson safe from, whether it's people, accidents, or possibly black bears, which are prevalent in Utah's mountains and forests.

According to a New York Times article entitled "How to Run Like a Girl," in the U.S women make up 57 percent of race finishers, with about 10.7 million women racing.

But women runners going out on their own, particularly to quiet places or when it's dark clearly often face a risk to their safety. When inputting the question: "How many female runners are there in America?" in to Google, the first thing that comes up is: "How many female runners have been killed?"

In April 2022, Samsung came under fire for releasing an advert for its new smart watch, the Galaxy Watch4, which appeared to be encouraging women to run alone at night. Entitled "Night Owls," the ad featured a woman running at 2 a.m. with earbuds in, through dark streets and down alleyways and at one point she ran past a lone man on a bike on a bridge.

Jamie Klingler, co-founder of organization Reclaim The Streets, founded in 1995 with a shared ideal of community ownership of public spaces, said of the ad that is was "completely and utterly tone deaf" and called it the "Kendall Jenner Pepsi moment for Samsung."

The internet is full of tips on how women can stay safe while on a solo run, with the problem clearly not being women running alone, but the dangerous individuals out there who want to harm people.

In an article for Runners World, writer Meghan Kita said: "You can take your generic "safety tips" and shove 'em. Posting a service-based "how to stay safe" story tied to these killings is completely inappropriate. You're implying that the victims were somehow at fault for their fates...Awareness and understanding from our male counterparts is more likely to improve the reality of being a woman who runs than a whole browser full of hackneyed "safety tips" ever will."

TikTok users were split over the extreme action taken in the video.

User Chelsea Roseberry wrote: "Well, he'll be able to watch closely if anything happens."

User Kika How 🇭🇹 said: "That's sad AF and sweet AF. What a time to be alive."

User Katie Rakow commented: "Dude that's actually the sweetest!"

Newsweek has reached out for comment.