Two teenagers were found dead early Saturday morning in a Brooklyn subway station in what police are investigating as a possible subway surfing incident. The deaths are possibly the latest in an ongoing crisis that has called for safety campaigns across New York City’s transit system.
Officers responded to the Marcy Avenue subway station on Broadway in Williamsburg around 3:10 a.m. on Saturday, the New York Police Department (NYPD) said in statements to the media. Upon arrival, first responders found two unconscious women and attempted CPR, but both were pronounced dead at the scene.
NYC Transit President Demetrius Crichlow addressed the dangerous trend.
“It’s heartbreaking that two young girls are gone because they somehow thought riding outside a subway train was an acceptable game,” Crichlow said, according to a press release. “Parents, teachers, and friends need to be clear with loved ones: getting on top of a subway car isn’t ‘surfing’—it’s suicide. I’m thinking of both the grieving families, and transit workers who discovered these children, all of whom have been horribly shaken by this tragedy.”
The latest deaths come amid increasing efforts by city and state officials to combat the dangerous trend. In September, Mayor Eric Adams, Gov. Kathy Hochul, and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority unveiled “Subway Surfing Kills—Ride Inside, Stay Alive,” a new public information campaign created in partnership with the NYC Department of Education, NYPD, and NYC Department of Youth and Community Development.
“Each subway surfing death tragically strips young New Yorkers of promising futures,” Adams said in the announcement. “We cannot endure another tragedy on our trains.”
MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber said: “Riding outside a train car is subway stupidity and never ends well.”
Statistics provided in the announcement show NYPD took enforcement action on 87 calls related to subway surfing in 2023, nearly tripling that of 2022. The department conducted 69 home visits to known subway surfers between April and June this year.
There were five deaths related to suspected subway surfing in 2023, compared to five total fatalities between 2018 and 2022. The MTA documented more than 450 instances of people riding outside trains between January and June 2023.
NYPD Commissioner Edward A. Caban spoke about the dangers: “Our message to New York City’s youth is clear: Always ride inside the train. Subway surfing is dangerous, it is illegal, and it can be lethal.”
The campaign includes student-recorded public service announcements, student-created graphics, social media content across multiple platforms, and anti-surfing messages on MetroCards.
“As a proud native of Queens, I’m both honored and motivated to partner with the MTA and NYC Public Schools to raise awareness about the dangers of subway surfing,” Sylvester said.
The MTA continues working with social media companies to remove subway surfing videos, with more than 1,800 videos taken down year-to-date, as of the June announcement.
NYC Council Member Oswald Feliz called the growing number of subway surfing tragedies concerning, and said, “We must do everything we can to deter such conduct.”
The New York Police Department and NYC Transit did not immediately respond to requests for comment from NTD News about the latest incident.
