A 15-year-old boy died while subway surfing in Brooklyn in broad daylight a day ago, authorities confirmed Friday, the latest in what officials describe as an escalating trend of such dangerous behavior.
The boy fell off the J train as it approached the Marcy Avenue station around 11 a.m. Thursday and touched the electrified third rail. It killed him instantly, officials said. His name has not been released. Subway service in the area was disrupted for hours and hundreds of people had to be taken off the train involved at the time.
No other injuries were reported.
The boy's death comes months after police warned of an increase in teenagers walking atop subway cars. They blamed social media challenges for the troublesome trend. It wasn't clear if one of those was involved in this week's Marcy Avenue case, but top transit officials sought to drive home the point that subway surfing isn't a game.
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"Riding on top of subway cars is reckless, dumb and dangerous, frequently leading to tragedy for the person, family and friends," NYC Transit President Richard Davey said in a statement. "We implore parents to speak with their children about what can seem like a game, but obviously is not."
It wasn't the borough's first case of subway surfing this year. A group of teenagers went viral in June after wild video surfaced showing them dancing atop cars as their train barreled along the Williamsburg Bridge. No one was hurt.
In August, a 15-year-old boy lost an arm in a subway surfing incident in Queens.
