New York teenager killed and another injured after carrying out TikTok trend of ‘subway surfing’

A New York teen who fell from the top of a moving Subway car is reeling from the tragic accident that left her best friend dead.

Windinson Garcia and Brian Crespo, both aged 14, were participating in a dangerous TikTok trend known as “subway surfing,” which involves jumping on top of train cars, when the tragedy unfolded on Thursday ( 22 June), ABC News reports.

The pair were knocked off a moving Manhattan-bound L train when it approached a tunnel just before entering the Bushwick-Aberdeen Ave stop. While Windinson survived the accident and was transported to the hospital, his best friend was pronounced at the scene.

“His waist is broken and he has like a lot of bruises and stitches all over his body,” Windinson’s seventeen-year-old cousin Erika, who did not share her last name, told ABC. “I don’t know why he decided to do stuff like that ... He’s very smart. He’s like - how do I say - he likes to do dangerous things like that.”

Following the death of a 15-year-old under similar circumstances in February, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) released data that suggested incidents of passengers riding outside of subway cars had increased by 366per cent since 2021.

Another teen, 14, was also killed in March after he fell between moving subway cars.

During a press conference after Thursday’s tragedy, New York City Mayor Eric Adams urged TikTok to ban and take down videos of teens engaging in the high-stakes stunt, which gather millions of views on the platform.

“Today we lost another child. The consequences of social media and other addictive online content are tragic and real,” the mayor said. “Subway surfing kills.”

Speaking with CBS News, Windinson’s father Kleber Garcia said he had spent the last few days next to his son’s hospital bed, while also mourning Brian’s sudden death.

The teen had just graduated junior high the day before his life was cut short.

“They were sons to him, even [the teenager who died] was like a son to him. They were like brothers and knew each other since they were young,” a translator told the network Mr Garcia had said.

TikTok issued a statement to CBS, saying that moderators are actively addressing the trend and removing that type of video from the platform.

“Our deepest sympathies go out to family and friends of the young person involved in this incident. This dangerous activity predates our platform, and we strictly remove such content if we see it on TikTok,” a spokesperson said.

“More than 40,000 safety professionals are dedicated to keeping our community safe and work diligently to remove harmful content when found.”

In March, the MTA launched a campaign to address the alarming trend, but parents who have lost their children while they attempted the stunt have said that more must be done to educate teens on the dangers of subway surfing.

“The MTA has failed us. And it continues to fail parents,” Norma Nazario, who lost her son Zackery in February, told the New York Post on Saturday. “The doors need to be locked, unless it’s an emergency — then they can open ... If they had done something 15 years ago … my son would still be here.”

The MTA has previously said that some doors are kept open in cases of emergency. The Independent has reached out to the agency.