Eight minors have died from 'subway surfing' in New York: The latest dangerous viral trend
This dangerous activity has been recorded in neighborhoods such as Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx, and among the victims are children as young as 11 to 15 years old.
New York City Subway - File Image.
In 2024, at least six minors died in New York while attempting "subway surfing," the dangerous trend of climbing onto the roof of subway cars while subway trains are in motion.
So far this year, two teenagers have died, and, according to The Guardian, arrests of young people for subway surfing have skyrocketed by 46% this year, with police statistics showing 164 minors arrested to date, up from 112 in the same period last year.
According to a report by ABC7 New York, a 14-year-old boy was seriously injured last week while "subway surfing" in the Bronx.
The teenager fell off the train onto the tracks at the Baychester Avenue subway station.
This dangerous activity has been reported in neighborhoods such as Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx, and the victims include children as young as 11 to 15 years old.
Although Mayor Eric Adams, Gov. Kathy Hochul and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) have launched an interagency campaign dubbed "Subway Surfing Kills - Ride Inside, Stay Alive," the trend has grown, fueled in part by social media challenges and videos that glorify this behavior.
The MTA and NYPD have also responded by deploying drones, removing thousands of related videos and urging platforms to take stronger measures to prevent these accidents.
Is social media to blame?
Shortly thereafter, major social media platforms removed some 3,000 videos of "subway surfing." So far this year, more than 1,800 videos have been removed.
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