The authorities of NY They try to put a brake on the fashion of “subway surfing”which consists of getting on the roof of a moving subway car and exposing the “feat” in the social networks.
Isa Islam is one of those who will regret for the rest of his life having gone looking for his “adrenaline shock”according to the AFP.
One afternoon in November 2013, he and two cousins climbed on top of a train car at an underground station in the F line in Brooklyn.
On his first and last attempt, his head struck a metal beam and the injuries he received left him partially blind. “It was extremely stupid,” he says today. “If there’s anyone who needs a time machine, it’s me”.
Isa spent six weeks in the hospital and underwent “many” operations, but survived. Others have been less lucky.
In February, A 15-year-old boy died after falling from the roof of a moving underground railway. Another teenager, from Bronxdied in December.
After these accidents, the New York police recalled that the subway “is not a playground” and that getting into a moving car is illegal.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA)which manages the public transport network, called for responsibility from social networks, pointing to TikTok, Instagram or Snapchat.
According to MTAthe posting of videos online in the spring and summer increased the popularity of this practice.
The agency received reports according to which 928 people were found traveling outside the subway units in that periodfour times more than in 2021 and almost double that of 2019 (490), the year before the covid pandemic.
“If they posted videos of people playing Russian roulette with real bullets, they would realize the consequences. It’s the same for those kids who are encouraged by these glorifying videos,” the MTA CEO recently lashed out. Jan dear.
A spokesperson for TikTok He told AFP that the network “does not display videos of known dangerous behavior in search results.”
Snapchat responded in turn that it “immediately deletes” videos of “subway surfing” barely aware of its existence.
One of these spokespersons explained that they are in contact with the MTA “to discuss the measures to be taken to prevent the dissemination of this content.”
This practice is reminiscent of the video game “Subway surfers”popular in mobile applications, where the hero, a graffiti artist, jumps from train to train and runs down the tracks to escape from a policeman.
But in real life “it is not a video game,” warns Isa Islam, who is now part of the association “Breaking the Cycle”, dedicated to preventing and combating this trend. “110% don’t do it,” she pleads.
