Fourth NYC teen dies subway surfing in 2023, despite city crackdown
More people have already died subway surfing this year than in the last three years combined, according to troubling new data obtained by The Post.
Four thrill seekers were killed while riding on top of trains so far this year.
The most recent case was 14-year-old Jevon Fraser, who died Thursday after trying to surf the northbound 7 train in Queens.
Subway surfing caused two deaths last year: one death each in 2021, 2019, and 2018.
No one died trying to perform the dangerous feat in 2020, according to MTA data.
There have been at least 66 reports of people riding the roofs of moving trains as of June 22, according to the NYPD, which began tallying such incidents for the first time this year.
Fraser, 14, of Canarsie was found lying on the platform at the Rawson Street station in Queens with injuries indicating he fell from an “elevated height,” according to the NYPD.
A friend of Fraser’s, a 16-year-old named Rop, told The Post he was in the same urban explorer group as the teen, which has hundreds of members who meet online and perform daring stunts that include subway surfing, breaking into abandoned buildings, and even lying on the subway tracks while a moving train passes over them.
Most of the group swore off subway surfing after Kavon Wooden, 15, died performing the stunt last December, but some continued.
Many have since recommitted to staying off the tops of moving trains in the wake of Fraser’s death, Rop said.
“Now this happened and they took a vow to stop for sure,” Rop said.
Rop, who said he believes Fraser tripped and fell while on top of the train, also said he had a message for anyone considering subway surfing.
“I know this is hypocritical for me to say, but please just stop surfing,” Rop said.
“It’s fun and you get an adrenaline pump out of it, but it’s just not worth it.”
Other friends and members of the group also took to Instagram following Fraser’s death, including one who posted a text conversation where they appear to be trying to convince the teen not to subway surf.
“If you do it the chances of you dying are very high dude,” the user wrote in the screenshot of an apparent conversation with Fraser posted to an Instagram story.
“And I don’t wanna die a young man.”
“I lost too many people already bro I [sic] keep telling yall stop f–king surfing,” another wrote.
“This s–t don’t make you cool. This s–t f–king hurts bro I’m in tears typing this.”
Fraser’s death comes exactly one week after 14-year-old Brian Crespo was killed while subway surfing on a Manhattan-bound L train in Brooklyn last Thursday.
In May, a 14-year-old boy died after he fell between subway cars in the Bronx while riding on top of a 5 train and, a month earlier, 15-year-old Zackery Nozario was killed while riding on a subway car across the Williamsburg Bridge.
Mayor Adams, the NYPD, and MTA released recent PSAs warning of the dangers of subway surfing and blamed the rising trend on social media.
“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,” Mayor Eric Adams told The Post after he called on social media sites to ban subway-surfing videos following Crespo’s death.
