One teenager was killed and a second critically injured while “subway surfing” atop a Manhattan-bound L train in Brooklyn, police said Thursday.
Brian Crespo and another boy, both 14, were riding on the car near the Broadway Junction Station when they were thrown from the train around 1:45 p.m., officials said.
Crespo was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. The second teen was rushed to Cohen Children’s Medical Center, where was listed in stable condition.
“This incident is tragic on so many levels and our hearts and prayers go out to the family of the deceased 14-year-old,” NYPD Chief of Transit Michael Kemper told reporters at a press briefing with Mayor Eric Adams.
“We urge anyone even thinking of subway surfing, don’t do it.”
Cops responding to the scene near Bushwick Avenue and Aberdeen Street station found the two boys underneath the train with “serious traumas to their bodies,” Kemper said.
He said the teens got on the train at the Bushwick station and jumped on top of the train at the Broadway Junction stop.
“While on top of the train between the Broadway Junction and this stop the train goes from above ground into a tunnel,” he said. “It was as the train was entering the tunnel that we believe they made contact, knocking them off the top of the train and causing the injuries and death.”
Sources told The Post that one of the teens was struck so hard that his shoes were knocked off of his feet.
“Subway surfing kills,” Mayor Eric Adams said at the briefing. “When you think about this you have to automatically about one’s own children. This is a tragedy.”
According to Adams, Crespo, who turned 14 last month, had been playing hooky from his Ridgewood, Queens high school.
The surviving teen graduated from junior high school just one day before the tragedy.
“Instead of attending and celebrating a graduation, we’re morning a life termination of a friend,” Adams said.
The mayor blamed social media sites, which post videos of teens pulling off the dangerous stunt, for fueling the potentially deadly craze.
“If you go online right now and put ‘NYC subway surfing’ you will see what some of the young people of NYC are watching,” he said. “Thirty-nine million views. They’re being exposed to dangerous and disturbing findings and radicalizing content.”
He called on TikTok to ban the videos and for parents to monitor their children’s social media pages.
Hizzoner also said the city could be looking at ways to physically mitigate both the accessibility for riders to climb aboard trains and the dangers riders face once on top.
“When you look at this incident, in particular, the small space between the head room and the train was extremely small. And from the outdoor locations, we’re going to examine whatever we possibly can,” Adams said. “So it’s just, really, education is the best way to turn this around.”
According to MTA data, there were 52 reports of people riding outside of subway cars in the city in February and 58 in January, the most recent stats available for 2023.
Adams said the number of people subway surfing skyrocketed by 366% between 2021 and 2022. Police and city officials have also warned about the stunts.
In March, a 14-year-old boy died after he fell between subway cars in the Bronx while riding on top of a 5 train.
A month earlier, a 15-year-old boy was also killed while riding on a subway car across the Williamsburgh Bridge.
Additional reporting by Nolan Hicks
