The heartbroken mother of a teenager who died while surfing the subway warns others about the dangerous TikTok trend, as New York City Mayor Eric Adams criticizes social media for “kidnapping” young people.
Krystel Romero, 13, was pronounced dead at the scene on Sunday after she and an unidentified 14-year-old friend fell from the top of a 7 train in Queens, New York and were run over at the street station. 111.
His mother, María Elena Ortiz, 31, now says she no longer wants to live.
‘I feel so desperate, she was my baby,’ Ortiz told the New York Post through a translator, while pleading with other teenagers not to get involved in the dangerous stunt.
“Stop surfing (on the subway), it’s not a game,” he said. ‘If you die, think of the pain you will cause your family. Please, children, don’t do it.”
The heartbroken mother of a teenager who died Sunday while subway surfing is urging others not to get involved in the dangerous activity.
Krystel Romero, 13, was pronounced dead at the scene on Sunday after she and an unidentified 14-year-old friend fell from the top of a 7 train in Queens, New York and were run over at the street station. 111.
A family friend named Ever claimed that no one knew that Romero rode on top of trains, and they didn’t even think she took the subway.
He said his death left his grieving mother “really in shock”.
“Krystel’s mother told her not to do anything like this,” he revealed to the Post. ‘I don’t know what made her make this decision… She fell on the trail of likes on TikTok.
“They were doing it because of social media,” he continued, calling social media “crazy right now” since teens “just want likes” and “think they can make money off of their social media.”
“Don’t take risks just for TikTok likes,” he warned others.
Romero’s death marks the sixth surfing death in the metro this year, surpassing last year’s five deaths.
Meanwhile, her friend remains in critical condition at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens, and unnamed sources told the Post that she had a skull fracture, a brain hemorrhage and can’t breathe on her own.
The tragedy occurred just a week after 13-year-old Adolfo Sorzano died while riding the Queens subway.
In September, 11-year-old Cayden Thompson died while riding the subway on a G train in Park Slope, Brooklyn.
Other deaths included 15-year-old Anthony Bhagwandeen (left) and 14-year-old Alam Reyes (right).
The tragic accident mirrors a similar one just a week earlier, when 13-year-old Adolfo Sorzano died while riding the Queens subway.
The teen had been warned by his parents not to engage in risky behavior eight months earlier, when his mother, Milene Sorzano, found videos on his phone of him surfing the subway, which she posted on social media. Pix 11 said.
The family now remembers him as a child “full of life, dreams and hopes” whose death “has left a void impossible to fill.” according to an online fundraiser for his funeral expenses.
‘I ask you with all my heart to help us say goodbye to him with the dignity he deserves,’ Sorzano wrote.
Adolfo’s father now also begs others not to follow in his son’s footsteps.
“Please do not ride (on) the subway,” Adolfo Sanabria told the Post. ‘Please think of the pain this will cause your parents.
Other deaths included 14-year-old Alam Reyes, who fell off an F train bound for Coney Island in Brooklyn in January and died at the scene, and an unidentified 13-year-old boy who died while riding the Bronx subway. in June.
In July, 15-year-old Anthony Bhagwandeen also died after boarding a Queens train.
And just last month, 11-year-old Cayden Thompson died while riding the subway on a G train in Park Slope, Brooklyn.
Her death prompted her uncle, himself a teenager, to vow to never try the trend again.
‘I got hooked on it. I had seen videos on the Internet and decided to do it’, Christian Vega, 15 years old. he told CBS News.
“It’s very easy to get hooked on those things because once you do, nothing is going to beat it, like that adrenaline rush you feel.
‘Other kids who are thinking about subway surfing and other kids who still do it, they just stop doing it. “It’s not worth living,” he said.
New York Mayor Eric Adams said Tuesday that “social media has radicalized and kidnapped our children.”
Following Romero’s death, New York City Mayor Eric Adams wrote on social media that he was “heartbroken to hear that subway surfing – and the pursuit of social media clout – has stolen another life from him.” “.
Following Romero’s death, New York City Mayor Eric Adams wrote on social media that he was “heartbroken to hear that subway surfing – and the pursuit of social media clout – has stolen another life from him.” “.
‘We are doing everything we can to raise awareness against this dangerous trend, but we need all New Yorkers, and our social media companies, to do their part too.
“No position is worth your future,” he said.
The mayor also addressed the issue at a press conference Tuesday, saying, “I don’t know if we really understand what social media is doing to our children.”
“Social media has radicalized and kidnapped our children,” he said. “It’s unimaginable that you can ride a subway train and 10 million people see it and we show it over and over again.”
He went on to say that teenagers “are more impressionable at that age.”
“You know, when you’re a kid, you come out of a karate movie and you start kicking like Bruce Lee,” Adams told reporters. “And that’s the same thing.”
At a separate news conference Tuesday, Metropolitan Transit Authority CEO Janno Lieber said the agency “has done a lot to try to turn back this terrible and dangerous trend” and will “keep pushing.”
He said the effort includes “thousands and thousands” of print and verbal messages as part of the MTA’s “Ride Inside, Stay Alive” campaign, warning against the dangers of blink-and-play subway riding on the subway system. .
But Lieber said he is also asking social media companies to remove viral clips of teens surfing the subway as soon as they are posted.
“We’re always checking, every day, to make sure they get taken down and don’t get away,” he said.
In the meantime, Lieber asks parents and school officials to “put hard pressure on kids who have shown a propensity to do this, because we have to save their lives.”
‘Please! Parents, teachers and other caregivers: make sure this is not a game,” he said. ‘We need people to pull back on kids when they get involved in this.
“They can’t risk their lives,” he continued. ‘This is not like a video game, you don’t get another chance. You can’t just restart: this is an opportunity. If you lose, if you do something stupid, you will lose your life.’
He added that “it breaks New Yorkers’ hearts that children, many of them simply good children, are being hurt and even, God forbid, killed by this dangerous activity.”