Ride Inside Fighting the Deadly Trend of New York Train Surfing

Jaida Rivera's 11-year-old son, Cayden, was supposed to be in school at Brooklyn's Fort Greene Preparatory Academy on the morning of September 16 last year.

- Edward Helmore

Jaida Rivera's 11-year-old son, Cayden, was supposed to be in school at Brooklyn's Fort Greene Preparatory Academy on the morning of September 16 last year. Staff spotted him in the cafeteria after his grandmother dropped him off at 7:45 a.m.

But 30 minutes later, he was marked as absent. Cayden had slipped out, boarded a G subway train going south, and was riding on top of one of its carriages when he fell onto the tracks at Fourth Avenue/Ninth Street station just after 10 a.m. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Cayden was the youngest of six people who died subway surfing in New York City last year. The highly dangerous practice of balancing on top of fast-moving subway trains is most often attempted in Brooklyn and Queens—where trains often run overground—and typically in warmer months during the school term. For young people, it can bring serious social media kudos.

New York authorities have long warned against the stunts, but to little avail. Police data shows that arrests for subway surfing are up 70% year on year, and the average age of those apprehended was 14. So far this year, 164 children have been caught surfing, up from 112 in the same period in 2024.

Last week, a 14-year-old was critically injured falling from a 5 line train in the Bronx. The 7 line, between Manhattan and Queens, is the most popular, according to the New York Police Department's transit chief, Joseph Gulotta, in part because surfing on the 7 mimics the closing frames of the 2017 movie Spider-Man: Homecoming. Other blockbusters with train roof chases to inspire copycats include the 2012 James Bond film, Skyfall.