Authorities in New York said another teenager has died while attempting to perform the dangerous “subway surfing” trend. According to the New York Post, the deceased, identified as 14-year-old Jevon Fraser, was on June 29 found with injuries at the Rawson Street station in Queens, the NYPD said; adding that the wounds showed he had fallen from an “elevated height.”
There have been numerous reports of thrill seekers attempting the very dangerous and deadly trend across New York City’s subway system. Some people who have been unsuccessful have either sustained severe injuries or died. The trend in question became common after the “Subway Surfers” video game was released.
In an interview with the news outlet, Fraser’s friend, Rop, said he and the deceased teen are members of an online urban explorer group that attempts thrill-seeking stunts such as subway surfing, entering abandoned buildings, and lying on subway tracks as a train moves over them.
Many members of the group reportedly decided to stop subway surfing after a 15-year-old died while trying to perform the stunt in December. Others have, however, not stopped.
“Now this happened and they took a vow to stop for sure,” Rop, 16, said in reference to Fraser’s death. “I know this is hypocritical for me to say, but please just stop surfing,” Rop added. “It’s fun and you get an adrenaline pump out of it, but it’s just not worth it.”
Group members and friends also re-echoed Rop’s appeal in Instagram posts – with one of them reiterating this caution through shared text messages which showed how Fraser was advised about the dangers involved in attempting the stunt.
“If you do it the chances of you dying are very high dude,” the user apparently told the deceased teen. “And I don’t wanna die a young man.”
The number of reported subway surfing deaths has risen this year, compared to the last three years put together, per New York Post. Four people, including Fraser, have so far died while attempting the stunt this year. The NYPD also said they had received more than 60 reports of people subway surfing.
Following another recent death of a teen who attempted the dangerous stunt, Mayor Eric Adams asked social media platforms to bar the posting of subway surfing videos.
“Many of our social media companies are flat-out ignoring the deadly impacts that their algorithms are having on our children — whether it’s poisoning their mental health, enticing them to steal cars, or goading them to ride on top of subways,” Adams told the news outlet.
