15-Year-Old Dies in Queens, Likely From ‘Subway Surfing,’ Police Say

The teenage boy was found unconscious at a subway station in the Rockaways early Friday evening.

A 15-year-old boy was found dead on a roadbed at a subway station in Queens on Friday. The boy, whom officials have not identified, most likely died as a result of so-called subway surfing, the police said.

The teenager was found around 5:30 p.m. when officers responded to 911 calls about an unconscious person at the Beach 90th Street station in the Rockaways, according to the authorities. The boy, who suffered injuries to his head, was pronounced dead by emergency medical workers at the scene.

As of Saturday afternoon, the New York City medical examiner’s office had not determined the cause of the boy’s death.

Subway surfing — a high-stakes activity that can involve riding on top of cars or between them or hanging from the sides of moving trains — has risen in popularity in recent years, driven in part by trends on social media. After a decline during the coronavirus pandemic, the number of surfing episodes more than quadrupled from 2021 to 2022, rising from 206 to 982. In March of this year, a 10-year-old boy was caught riding on a southbound A train in Queens, at the Beach 60th Street station, according to news reports.

Deaths from surfing, however, are relatively rare. There were 104 reported surfing incidents and two deaths in the city this year as of June 9, according to police data, including a 14-year-old boy killed after he was struck by a southbound F train in Brooklyn at the Avenue N station. On June 14, a 13-year-old boy was killed after surfing in the Bronx.

There were five deaths related to subway surfing in all of 2023, according to police data.