15-year-old dies in Queens from likely subway surfing incident, police say

A 15-year-old boy found dead on the roadbed at a Queens subway station on Friday likely died as a result of a subway surfing incident, according to police.

Police responded to a 911 call at the Beach 90th Street Station in Rockaway Beach around 5:30 p.m. on Friday and found the teenager, who was unresponsive and had head trauma. EMS pronounced him dead at the scene, and police have withheld his identity pending family notification.

Police said the investigation is ongoing.

According to NYPD data, there have been 104 total incidents of train surfing so far this year, with two fatalities. Police have made 99 arrests. In January, a teenage boy died while trying to subway surf on an F train in southern Brooklyn, while a man in his 50s died after being struck by a train while subway surfing at the Prospect Park station later that month. And in June, a 13-year-old died in the Bronx after falling from the top of a 6 train, according to police.

Last year, police logged 143 train surfing events and five deaths, and arrested 133 people for riding atop trains.

Last fall, Mayor Eric Adams, Gov. Kathy Hochul, and the MTA launched a public information campaign called “ Subway Surfing Kills – Ride Inside, Stay Alive ,” which included PSAs recorded by students and signage inside subway stations around the city. The NYPD also deployed additional officers to stations notorious for being subway surfing hot spots.

The MTA has also urged social media companies to remove subway surfing videos. Last February, MTA Chair Janno Lieber said the agency’s analysis found that the number of videos of young people riding atop subway trains surged by 160% between 2019 and 2022.