A TikTok trend called 'subway surfing' has claimed the life of another teen in the United States after a tragic accident. Windinson Garcia and Brian Crespo, both 14 years old, were participating in the deadly trend, when the pair were knocked off a moving Manhattan-bound train as it approached a tunnel just before entering the Bushwick-Aberdeen Ave stop, ABC news reports.
Though Windinson survived the incident and was swiftly taken to hospital, his friend Brian was pronounced dead at the scene. Talking to the US news outlet, Windinson's seventeen-year-old cousin Erika said her relative is lucky to be alive.
She added: "His waist is broken and he has like a lot of bruises and stitches all over his body. 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."
Subway surfing is the act of riding on the outside of a moving train or tram, be that on top of carriages, between them, or on the side. The trend is incredibly dangerous, but is not a new phenomenon and has been around for over 100 years.
However, there appears to be a sudden boom in the act, with a rise in videos on TikTok showing individuals risking their lives. Following the death of a 15-year-old under similar circumstances four months ago, New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) released data that suggested incidents of passengers riding outside of subway carriages had increased by a huge 366 per cent since 2021.
Another 14-year-old teen was killed back in March after he fell between two moving subway carriages. In reaction to another teen being killed, New York City Mayor Eric Adams urged TikTok to take down videos of subway surfing.
He said: "Today we lost another child. The consequences of social media and other addictive online content are tragic and real. Subway surfing kills."
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In response to the tragedy, TikTok issued a statement to CBS, saying there are moderators actively addressing the trend and deleting these types of videos from the platform. In a statement, TikTok said: "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. More than 40,000 safety professionals are dedicated to keeping our community safe and work diligently to remove harmful content when found."
