Metro

Middle-aged NYC subway surfer killed after ‘going nuts,’ hanging on side of rush-hour train: NYPD

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Published Jan. 23, 2024, 2:42 p.m. ET

A subway surfer was killed when he was catapulted underneath a Brooklyn train during a tragic rush-hour mishap Tuesday morning, cops and witnesses said.

The man — described as in his 50s — was fatally struck by a southbound Q train at the Prospect Park station at Ocean Avenue and Lincoln Road in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens around 8:30 a.m., the NYPD said.

Witnesses told police the victim was surfing the train before the deadly incident, authorities said.

He was pronounced dead by responding EMS workers and no criminality was suspected.

One MTA employee told The Post that the victim “was going nuts on the train” before he began surfing.

“He was in his 50s or 60s; not a kid,” the worker said. “Maybe an [emotionally disturbed person]. He was going nuts. He got on top of the train and then his jacket got tangled on a signal pole. He wound up underneath the Q.”

Other workers recalled that the subway surfer was hanging on the side of the train before getting spun around “like a washing machine” by the signal pole. 

“That’s where they picked him up,” one employee said while gesturing toward a signal box. “[The train] dragged him 20 to 50 feet.”

The straphanger’s death “severely disrupted” B and Q train service in Brooklyn, according to the MTA’s posts on X.

The scene where a male subway surfer was fatally struck at the Prospect Avenue station in Brooklyn Tuesday morning.
The victim was “going nuts on the train” before he began to subway surf, an MTA worker told The Post. Paul Martinka
The scene where a male subway surfer was fatally struck at the Prospect Avenue station in Brooklyn Tuesday morning.
The victim’s jacket became tangled around a subway pole before he fell under the train, an MTA worker said. Paul Martinka
The scene where a male subway surfer was fatally struck at the Prospect Avenue station in Brooklyn Tuesday morning.
The rush-hour incident snarled B and Q subway service in Brooklyn. Paul Martinka

Inconvenienced straphangers were seen piling onto shuttle buses on Flatbush Avenue.

The incident snarled commutes for some students and teachers of the nearby Maple Street School — a cooperative preschool with tuition rates up to $29,000 per year, one employee told The Post.

“Unfortunately it’s a part of commuting in the city,” the employee said. 

Clarice Henry, a longtime Flatbush resident, repeated the widely used MTA safety slogan.

The scene where a male subway surfer was fatally struck at the Prospect Avenue station in Brooklyn Tuesday morning.
No criminality was suspected in the straphanger’s death, cops said. Paul Martinka

“Stay alive; ride inside,” Henry said, adding, “What are you made of, steel?”

The latest straphanger’s death comes less than two weeks after 14-year-old subway surfer Alam Reyes was killed when he was thrown from a southbound F train approaching the Avenue N stop.