Thrill-seeking young teenagers are catching rides on top of moving trains in the social media trend dubbed “subway surfing”.
A 14-year-old boy lost his life while attempting the dangerous trend on a New York City subway train, last week on Friday.
The teenager was riding on the outside of the southbound F train at the Avenue N station before he fell. He was pronounced dead on the scene by emergency services.
Richard Davey, the president of New York City Transit said in a statement: "Our thoughts are with the teenager’s family. Subway surfing kills. Another innocent life has been lost and it should not happen.”
But what is this dangerous trend that is causing fatalities?
What is subway surfing?
Subway surfing or sometimes called train surfing, is the act of riding on top or outside of a moving train. It's extremely risky and can result in falling, getting electrocuted or severing limbs.
Police officers warned train surfing was "incredibly dangerous and can very easily result in death or serious injury" after a video was uploaded onto YouTube of an individual attempting to train surf a DLR train. It is not a new phenomenon and has been around in New York since the 19th century when poor migrant workers could not afford train fares and carriages were overcrowded.
It's still an increasing issue in countries like India and Bangladesh, where young men train surf to avoid the fares or get on a full train.
But the practice has slowly transformed from survival to a hobby and joined the slew of dangerous TikTok trends popular with the younger audience.
It resurfaced in early 2022 after several videos went viral on the TikTok. The trend is a real-life imitation of the popular game Subway Surfers, where characters run on top of rapid moving trains.
In September, social media companies took down 10,000 videos and photos related to subway surfing, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
MTA said the number of reports of youngsters subway surfing has quadrupled since 2021 from 206 to 928.
Subway surfing resulted in four deaths last year, with two more seriously injured, according to New York Police Department Chief of Transit, Michael Kemper. Between 2018 and 2022, there were five suspected fatalities of subway surfing, the MTA said.
The act of subway surfing or train surfing is illegal on most railways in the world.
