Heart-stopping video captures NYC subway surfing, as tragic trend claims another teen victim: 'They do it every day' - New York Post

Frightening video shows a person running on top of a moving train at the same Queens station where a teenage girl died and her young friend was critically injured while subway surfing over the weekend.
A heart-pounding clip taken Thursday by a concerned New Yorker near the 111th Street station in Corona shows someone precariously jogging along the top of an elevated subway car.
A second clip from April shows at least five youngsters atop another subway car in the same corridor along Roosevelt Avenue.
“They do it every day,” Cara Thomas, who shot the earlier video and whose balcony overlooks the elevated tracks, told The Post on Monday.
“I see it almost every day. And they do it on the top of the train, the express. They’re mostly in groups of four or six,” Thomas said.
“It’s so crazy. It scares the hell out of me.”
On Sunday, two teen girls plummeted from a southbound 7 train at around 11 p.m. at the 111th Street station, leaving one with life-threatening injuries and killing the second.
A 13-year-old Brooklyn girl, identified by police as Krystel Romero, was pronounced dead at the scene. Her 14-year-old companion remained in critical condition at Elmhurst Hospital Monday, with sources saying she had a fractured skull and brain bleeding and was unable to breathe on her own.
Romero’s mother is “really in shock,” and “still can’t believe it,” a friend of the distraught woman said on her behalf Monday.

The family friend, identified only as Ever, said the teen’s mom is originally from Mexico and has been in the US for more than 25 years.

“Krystel’s mom told her not to do anything like this,” the friend said.

“I don’t know what made her take this decision. Kids these days are doing all these things for social media,” Ever added.

“Maybe it was a bad influence from friends. Maybe it was a bet. Krystel was even afraid to go on the trains. She never wanted to go places on the subway, so we’d always catch taxis.”
It marked the sixth subway surfing fatality this year, surpassing the five deaths from the social media stunt in 2023.
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The fifth subway surfing death of the year came just last week, when 13-year-old Brooklyn boy Adolfo Sorzano was killed at the Forest Avenue station in Queens in what his family said was an attempt at a viral TikTok challenge.
Last month, 11-year-old Cayden Thompson was struck in the head by a low metal beam and killed while riding on top of a G train in Brooklyn.
Thompson’s Sept. 16 death followed another apparent fatal subway surfing incident in which a 15-year-old boy was found dead on the rails of the Beach 90th Street station in the Rockaways in July, police said.
One month earlier, a 13-year-old boy was killed when he fell off a northbound 6-train in The Bronx, cops said.
The first subway surfing fatality came in January, when 14-year-old Alam Reyes was thrown from a southbound F train approaching the Avenue N stop in Brooklyn.
The MTA has made efforts to combat the foolhardy activity, with initiatives like one launched last year in which subway announcements voiced by New York City students urge passengers to “ride inside” to “stay alive.”
The MTA has also asked social media companies to decrease access to videos of young people participating in the dangerous stunt.
The NYPD, meanwhile, has ramped up enforcement, with surveillance teams using drones to monitor stations popular with subway surfers, newly-minted Transit Bureau Chief Joseph Gulotta told MTA board members recently, according to Channel 7.
But it doesn’t seem to be enough to stop teens from giving into the troubling trend.
“I see a lot of kids running and doing flips on top of the moving train,” noted Corona resident Mario Larios on Monday.
“My 10-year-old daughter gets excited when she sees them and says, ‘Oh my God, mummy, look at those kids on top of the subway!’” Larios said. “I tell her how dangerous it is and tell her to never do it.”
Iris Mota, an 18-year-old community college student, also said she sees the daredevils on a regular basis.
“I see subway surfers a lot, at least once a month. They’re mostly middle-schoolers, so between 12 and 14. It’s mostly boys,” she said.
“These kids know the dangers but they’re still doing it,” Mota said. “They’re doing it for social media clout.”
Jorge Navarro, a 22-year-old busboy from Queens, said it seems it’s happening “more than ever.”
“They’re very young,” he told The Post. “I feel they’re chasing an adrenaline rush and recognition on Instagram. Social media makes them do stupid things.”
Mayor Eric Adams, in a statement on X, said he was “heartbroken” to hear of the latest subway surfing death.
“Heartbroken to hear that subway surfing – and the pursuit of social media clout – has stolen another life,” Adams said.
“We are doing everything we can to raise awareness against this dangerous trend, but we need all New Yorkers – and our social media companies – to do their part, too,” he added. “No post is worth your future. My prayers are with the families of both girls.”–
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