The trend may be seductive on social networks, but it is life-threatening: in New York, the authorities are trying to stop the “subway surfing” trend, which consists of taking the stage by climbing onto the roof of a Subway climbs moving subway.
• Also read: Killed while “surfing” on a subway
Isa Islam is one of those who will regret for the rest of his life that he was 17 when he was looking for his “adrenaline rush,” he tells AFP. On that evening in November 2013, he had climbed onto the roof of a car with two cousins in an F subway station in Brooklyn.
On his first – and last – attempt, his head hit a metal beam, blood spurting out and the injuries partially blinding him. “That was extremely stupid,” he says today. “If anyone needs a time machine, it’s me,” he adds.
Isa, who spent six weeks in hospital and underwent “numerous” surgeries, survived, but some are less fortunate. In February, a 15-year-old boy died after falling from the roof of a running subway train. Another Bronx teenager died in December.
After these accidents, the New York City Police Department issued a reminder that the subway was “not a playground” and that getting into a moving car was illegal. Even on New York’s photogenic network, the largest in the United States (more than 400 stations), where the airways offer spectacular views of the city.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), which runs the public transport network, called for social media accountability, pointing to TikTok, Instagram or Snapchat.
According to the MTA, the release of videos on the networks this past spring and summer has boosted the popularity of the challenge.
928 reports of people traveling outside of cars were identified, more than four times more than in 2021 and almost double the number in 2019 (490), the last year before the Covid pandemic.
“If they released videos of people playing Russian roulette with live balls, they would see the consequences. The same goes for the children who are encouraged by these glorifying videos,” MTA CEO Janno Lieber recently criticized.
A spokesman for TikTok told AFP that the network “does not display videos with known dangerous behavior in search results” and even makes sure it conducts searches for policies stating that this type of content is unauthorized.
Snapchat responds that it “immediately removes” “subway surfing” videos when it learns about them. One of those spokespersons also states that contacts have been made with the MTA “to discuss the actions we can take to prevent the distribution of this content.”
The trend is also reminiscent of the popular mobile video game Subway Surfers, in which the hero, a graffiti artist, jumps from train to train and runs across the tracks to escape a police officer.
But in real life “it’s not a video game,” warns Isa Islam, who is delivering his prevention message today at the “Breaking the Cycle” association.
“110% don’t do it,” he pleads.