Teen is first subway surfing death of 2024: officials

 BROOKLYN, N.Y. (PIX11) -- It is the first subway surfing death of 2024. 

A 14-year-old boy died in a fall from a Coney Island-bound F train despite an MTA campaign to stop subway surfing. 

Police believe the 14-year-old male was riding on top of a southbound F train when he fell to his death near McDonald and N Avenue at 2:17 p.m. 

This is the second suspected subway surfing death since the MTA began its anti-subway surfing campaign last Sep. 

“The more you tell them not to do something, the more they want to do it,” Natalie Quinn, a subway rider from nearby Mapleton, told PiX11 News. “They don’t realize their lives are on the line,” she added. 

The NYPD has special patrols of the J, Z, and No. 7 lines in the elevated sections that focus on the time when school lets out into the early evening. 

Before this death, the F line was not known for surfing. 

A 16-year-old from Bensonhurst said he had never heard of any anti-surfing campaign. 

“Personally, I didn’t hear about his campaign,” Melvin Flores, a 16-year-old from Bensonhurst, told PIX11 News.    

Before this MTA campaign started in Sep., there were five subway surfing deaths last year alone compared to five in the four years before from 2018 to 2022. 

The MTA says they have worked with all the major social media companies and have stopped or removed more than 10,000 videos and photos of Subway surfing. 

After this latest death, Transit President Richard Davey said, “It pains me, but I implore parents to talk with their children and teachers to speak with their students - riding on top of Subway Trains is reckless, dumb, and the consequences can be lethal.” 

“It’s painful because, at the end of the day, someone’s mom is crying for a dumb action,” Flores told PIX11 News.