Social media trend 'subway surfing' may have led to death on Metro's Red Line

WASHINGTON — Pediatricians are warning about a dangerous and potentially deadly social media trend.

"Subway surfing" claimed the life of a 14-year old boy in New York City and seriously injured his friend. Here at home, Metro confirms a young person was killed last week after climbing on top of a moving train.

Metro says a child climbed atop a moving train, fell onto the tracks, and lost their life. 

A spokesperson told WUSA9, "This is extremely dangerous. Don't do it. You could get arrested and unfortunately, as recently happened, it can cost you your life."

We don't know the exact age of the young person who died last Tuesday afternoon on the Red line between the Rhode Island Avenue and Brookland stations. However, Children's National Pediatrician Dr. Gabrina Dixon says young people are most susceptible to these dare devil stunts.

"They are still children and their brains are still developing," Dixon said. "We have seen injuries in the hospital for some of these social media trends. And some of them are devastating injuries, unfortunately. They really think that nothing will happen. And I think that's the big thing we have to recognize, especially when you see these videos, and nothing is happening to the people that are doing these videos."

Metro tells WUSA9 since the beginning of 2021, there have been four reports of people riding on top railcars, two of them died.

In New York, Mayor Eric Adams says the trend claimed the life of a 14-year old boy and seriously injured his friend. 

"In 2021 to 2022 there was a 366% increase in people riding outside the subway," Adams said.

The mayor called on TikTok to remove the videos. But a TikTok spokesperson responded by said, "This dangerous activity predates our platform, and we strictly remove such content if we see it on TikTok. More than 40,000 safety professionals are dedicated to keeping our community safe and work diligently to remove harmful content when found."

Dixon says parents should also talk to their children about what they're seeing on social media and keep them busy this summer.

"Children need monitoring, especially with everything that's out there on social media, everything is not always age appropriate," Dixon said. "If kids have things to do with their time productive things that they enjoy doing, they won't have time to do other things."