One teenage boy is dead and another is in the hospital after they were discovered unresponsive on the L train tracks in Bushwick, Brooklyn Thursday afternoon, apparently after having gone subway surfing.
The incident occurred at the Bushwick Avenue-Aberdeen Street stop on the L line at about 1:45 pm Thursday, according to police. Officers found the two 14-year-old boys on the tracks, with one discovered unconscious and unresponsive, and with severe head trauma; the teen was pronounced dead at the scene.
The other teen was found with body trauma, and was taken to Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park, where he is reportedly in critical condition.
Police and the mayor said the teens were subway surfing. Witnesses told ABC7 the teens were knocked off the top of the subway train as it entered the tunnel where the station is located.
NYPD Transit Chief Michael Kemper said the teens appeared to have gotten atop a Manhattan-bound train at Broadway Junction, where the L stops on a very high platform, but fell off after the train entered the tunnel containing Bushwick-Aberdeen.
Subway surfing has become popular among the city’s teens, particularly as videos of the act explode on TikTok, and the MTA logged a 440% increase in incidents between 2020 and 2022. Subway surfing is extremely dangerous and frequently deadly.
“There is a direct correlation, between social media and these challenges of subway surfing,” Mayor Eric Adams told reporters at the scene.
The incident caused significant delays for L train commuters, with Manhattan-bound trains not going past the Atlantic Avenue stop in East New York, while Canarsie-bound trains did not go beyond Myrtle Avenue in Bushwick.
L trains will not run overnight Thursday and Friday between Broadway Junction and Lorimer Street as part of pre-planned repair work; free shuttle buses are available.
Additional reporting by Lloyd Mitchell
