Subway surfing: NYPD and mother of boy killed in dangerous trend make urgent appeal to children of NYC days after another tragic death | amNewYork

NYPD Transit Chief Joseph Gulotta and Norma Nazario, whose teen died while subway surfing, urged families and children to stop the dangerous activity. Subway surfing has become a fad among youth, with an average age of 14 and some participants as young as 10. Gulotta described watching footage of a 14-year-old boy fall to his death from a J train over the Williamsburg Bridge, with another teen critically injured in the same incident. The NYPD links the trend to social media and internet fame, noting repeat offenders who return and sometimes steal MTA equipment such as keys, radios, and even break into train cabs. Gulotta reported over 60 repeat offenders tracked in five years.

"NYPD Chief of Transit Joseph Gulotta and Norma Nazario, the mother of a teen who lost his life while subway surfing, made a tearful plea on Wednesday to his family and children: Stop the deadly game now. Subway surfing has become a dangerous fad among New York City youth; according to Chief Gulotta, the average age of a subway surfer is 14, but cops have found some as young as 10. Gulotta and Nazario made their plea on Wednesday at One Police Plaza just days after the latest deadly subway surfing incident."

"On May 22, a 14-year-old boy died after falling from atop a J train as it traveled across the Williamsburg Bridge on the Lower East Side. Another surfer, just 18, was critically injured in the same incident. Gulotta described watching footage of the 14-year-old boy falling to his death as horrific. Subway surfing has frustrated the NYPD; the deadly trend of youths risking their lives to ride outside moving subway cars has been propagated largely by social media, with youths eager to cheat death in the pursuit of internet fame."

"We see repeat offenders, and that's really an issue that's upsetting, because we see the same group of people over and over again, a lot of times, it is a lifestyle, and it's almost like the influencer type of lifestyle, where they get clout by doing this, and you know they're going to come back and do it again, Gulotta said. Before school and after school, they are riding on top of that subway."

"Some of the young daredevils are repeat offenders who have gone as far as to steal MTA equipment, such as keys and radios, from employees' bags and even train cabs that they have broken into, to feed their dangerous habit. We will see them wearing MTA vests that have been stolen, have possession of MTA radios, in possession of actual subway keys, train keys start the train. It's problematic, and it's something we've been really working closely on, Gulotta said. It's over 60 repeat offenders since we've been tracking over the last five years."

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