Sunnyside, Queens (WABC) — As the new school year begins, New York City is launching a campaign to draw attention to the deadly consequences of subway surfing.
On Tuesday, Mayor Eric Adams, school principal David Banks and MTA President Janno Lieber will unveil a 14-point plan to stop the dangerous practice.
They gathered several times in the hours after school at the 33rd Street-Rosen Street subway station, which has long been popular with teenage surfers.
In June, a 14-year-old boy died after entering the station and climbing onto the roof of the No. 7 subway car before falling off the tracks.
The victim, Jevon Fraser, was taken to Cohen Children’s Medical Center in critical condition with severe head trauma. He was pronounced dead hours later.
The week before, another 14-year-old was killed while surfing the Brooklyn subway.
Windinson Garcia and Brian Crespo, 14, boarded an L train bound for Manhattan at the Broadway Junction on June 22, but before the train reached the Bushwick-Aberdeen Ave station He was knocked out of the car when entering the tunnel.
Crespo was killed and his friend Garcia was seriously injured.
The MTA keeps statistics on who rides on top of the train or between cars.
In 2019, 490 people were caught “riding outside trains,” according to an MTA report.
In 2020, that number dropped to 199, but rose again to 206 in 2021. That number shot up to 928 last year alone.
According to the NYPD, as of June 23, arrests for “unsafe rides,” including subway surfing, more than doubled compared to the same period last year.
There have been 139 arrests this year, compared to just 68 in 2021.
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