A 13-year-old girl died and another child was critically injured when the two engaged in “subway surfing” in New York City over the weekend.
On Sunday, 13-year-old Krystel Romero and an unnamed 12-year-old girl got on top of a moving train before eventually falling off and in between cars and being struck by the train. Ms. Romero was pronounced dead at the scene, while her friend was hospitalized in critical condition, the New York Police Department told People magazine Tuesday.
Her loved ones warned other youths who might be thinking of subway surfing to think of the pain their deaths could cause their own families.
Ms. Romero’s mother, Maria Elena Ortiz, 31, told The New York Post through a translator, “Stop surfing — it’s not a game. If you die, think of the pain you will cause your family. Please kids, don’t do it. … I don’t want to live right now. I feel so desperate. She was my baby.”
Ms. Romero is one of six people to die while trying to surf a subway car in 2024, according to Gothamist.
Transit officials have tried public awareness campaigns and working with social media platforms to take down subway surfing videos in an attempt to end the trend, but also urged action from parents.
“The MTA has done so much to push back on this terrible, dangerous trend. … a couple of the kids who have lost their lives in recent weeks had been apprehended by the NYPD doing this before, so we really need the parents and the schools to bear down … This is not like a video game, you don’t get another chance,” Metropolitan Transit Authority CEO Janno Lieber said at a press conference Tuesday.
A relative of Ms. Romero said she had previously gone out to surf the subway with her but decided against it this past weekend.
“I didn’t want to go out [Sunday,]” Ms. Romero’s cousin Judith Menendez told New York City The CW affiliate WPIX-TV, adding that kids who do the trend “think it’s a fun thing to do in life.”
“I’ll miss her laughs, her hugs, the way she used to talk to me. I miss her so much,” Judith said.
• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.
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