Two teenage girls died early Saturday as they rode atop a J train rumbling across the Williamsburg Bridge into Brooklyn in the latest subway surfing deaths to grip the city, police said.
The dual death was one of two subway surfing incidents to unfold in the city within 12 hours. In the earlier incident, a 14-year-old boy was hospitalized after falling from the roof of a No. 7 train in Queens, cops said.
The two girls, one 13, the other between 13 and 15, were found sprawled out on top of the last car of a J train after it entered the Marcy Ave. subway stop at Broadway at around 3:10 a.m. The train had just come across the Williamsburg Bridge from Manhattan.
Each teen suffered a head injury and died on the Queens-bound train, cops said. Their names weren’t immediately released as police track down their relatives.
The train’s emergency brake was triggered after it entered the station, and the doors opened, a source with knowledge of the case said.
The train’s conductor, trying to determine how the alarm was pulled, then found the two girls on top of the train, according to the source.
It appears the two hit their heads on a low-hanging beam as they crossed the bridge, cops said. Since the two girls were on the last car, responding officers scoured the tracks checking to see if any other victims had been hit by the beam and ended up on the roadbed.
No other victims were found, cops said.
Two other teens, both boys, were found on the train and were questioned to see if they had been with the dead girls, a police source said.
Train service along the J line was partially suspended for several hours between the Myrtle Ave. stop in Brooklyn and the Delancey St.-Essex St. station on the Lower East Side as cops continued their investigation. Normal train traffic resumed around 5:30 a.m.
About 11 hours earlier in Queens, a 14-year-old boy was rushed to an area hospital after he fell off the top of a Manhattan-bound No. 7 train leaving the Main St. station, the first station on the line.
The child suffered deep cuts to his face when he hit the roadbed.
Officers charged him with reckless endangerment, wrote up a juvenile report then allowed his parents to take him home, cops said.
With the two girls’ deaths on the J train Saturday morning, five people have now been killed subway surfing so far this year in New York City. Last year, a total of six people lost their lives doing the dangerous stunt, while five died riding atop subways in 2023, according to NYPD statistics.
Meanwhile, subway surfing arrests have also fallen this year by 25%, down from 162 by the end of last September to 128 this year, police said.
A total of 229 subway surfers were arrested in 2024, and 135 were arrested in 2023, cops said.
The deadly daredevil trend is being fueled by social media, and its victims are overwhelmingly young, often teenagers.
On June 16, a 14-year-old Bronx subway surfer was critically injured when he fell from a northbound No. 5 train near the Baychester Ave. stop around 3:15 p.m. and landed on the track bed, cops said.
On July 4, a 15-year-old boy died riding atop No. 7 train entering the Queensboro Plaza station, cops said.
In Brooklyn, a 13-year-old boy who was spotted subway surfing was rushed to the hospital suffering minor head injuries after he fell from the top of a train on March 17.
The teen was riding atop an R train heading into the Bay Ridge Ave. station around 4:30 p.m. when witnesses said he lost his balance and fell onto the tracks.
Over the past several months, cops and the MTA have taken a multiprong approach to discourage thrill seekers.
In June, the MTA ramped up its “Ride Inside and Stay Alive” campaign, featuring Queens-born BMX athlete Nigel Sylvester. The NYPD also began flying drones over aboveground subway lines to keep an eye out for subway surfers.
“It’s heartbreaking that two young girls are gone because they somehow thought riding outside a subway train was an acceptable game,” NYC Transit President Demetrius Crichlow said Saturday. “Parents, teachers and friends need to be clear with loved ones: Getting on top of a subway car isn’t ‘surfing’ — it’s suicide. I’m thinking of both the grieving families, and transit workers who discovered these children, all of whom have been horribly shaken by this tragedy.”
Originally Published: October 4, 2025 at 9:48 AM EDT
