Two teenage girls — including a 13-year-old — were killed in what police believe was a horrific subway-surfing tragedy on a Brooklyn train, officials said Saturday.
The latest incident brings the total number of subway surfing victims so far this year to five, police said, nearing the 2024 total of six fatalities and matching the five people killed in the stunts in 2023.
Cops were called at 3:10 a.m. to the Marcy Avenue-Broadway subway station in Williamsburg, where they found the girls unconscious and unresponsive on top of the Brooklyn-bound J train, police sources said.
The victims were pronounced dead at the scene. The second victim is believed to be between 13- and 18-years-old, the sources said.
“It’s heartbreaking that two young girls are gone because they somehow thought riding outside a subway train was an acceptable game,” NYC Transit President Demetrius Crichlow said in a statement.
“Parents, teachers, and friends need to be clear with loved ones: getting on top of a subway car isn’t ‘surfing’— it’s suicide,” he continued. “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.”
Officers were seen speaking to three teen boys inside the station, then driving two of the boys away in a cruiser.
Cops and firemen were also seen carrying a plastic bag and skateboard out of the station. It’s unclear if the items belonged to the victims, who have yet to be publicly identified.
The deadly trend, driven by social media, has been on the upswing in recent years as teens post videos of subway surfing, officials have said. Between 2018 and 2022, just five people died riding outside trains.
On July 4, a 15-year-old boy was killed when he plunged off a southbound 7 train around 2:45 a.m. as it pulled into the Queensborough Plaza station in Queens, while two other boys were seriously hurt subway surfing in separate incidents, including one in the Bronx in June and another in Queens in March.
MTA officials have pleaded with parents to ensure their kids wouldn’t be drawn into the reckless trend.
The MTA has also been running a “Ride Inside, Stay Alive” public service announcement on the subways since 2023 telling teens not to ride outside the train.
The NYPD began using drones in November 2023 to combat the issue and as of July, had busted 200 subway surfers and busted 229 people riding outside the trains in 2024 and 135 in 2023, according to NYPD data.