A teenage girl was killed and another was injured after being run over by a train while subway surfing, according to reports.
Two teen girls were subway surfing on top of a southbound 7 train at the 111th Street station in Corona, a neighborhood of Queens, when they fell onto the tracks, in between the cars, and were struck.
Police said that one girl, around 13 or 14, was declared dead at the scene while the other, 12, was left severely injured, the MTA New York City Transit President Demetrius Crichlow said in a Monday meeting of the MTA Board’s Transit Committee. As of Monday morning, the other teen is hospitalized in critical condition. The girls’ identities have not been released.
Authorities say they are investigating the deadly incident, the outlet reported.
“We didn’t hear commotion, but it came to an abrupt stop,” a commuter told PIX11. “Then the lights went off and we were in there for about five minutes with the lights off… then we were told to leave the train.”
There have been six subway surfing deaths from January 1 through October 27, 2024, surpassing last year’s grim total when five people died from the stunt over the same period, the MTA told The Independent.
Crichlow said at the Monday meeting: “We just have to implore parents, teachers, schools, friends, anyone that knows someone that is involving themselves in subway surfing, even thinking about it, to talk about the consequences. That should be the first part of the discussion. This is no game. There’s no reset at the end. There’s no restart when a person falls.
One occurred as recently as last week, when 13-year-old Adolfo Sorzano died “while he was doing this awful TikTok challenge subway surfing in New York City,” his GoFundMe page states.
In September, another similar tragedy occurred when an 11-year-old boy was struck while subway surfing.
Police are trying to discourage the dangerous stunt. Earlier this month, NYPD told amNewYork newspaper that it has arrested 163 people for subway surfing so far in 2024, marking a 22% increase from the 138 arrested in last year.
The Independent has reached out to the NYPD for more information.
