VIDEO: KaโVon Wooden loved trains. The 15-year-old had an encyclopedic knowledge of the subway system and dreamed of becoming a train operator. Instead, on a December morning in 2022, KaโVon died after he climbed to the roof of a moving J train in Brooklyn and then fell onto the tracks as it headed onto the Williamsburg Bridge. He is one of more than a dozen New Yorkers, many young boys — in the most recent case, young girls — who have been killed or badly injured after falling off speeding trains.
Other risks include being crushed between the train and tunnel walls and being electrocuted by high-voltage subway tracks. โSubway surfingโ dates back a century but it has been fueled by social media. Early Saturday morning, New York City police found two girls dead โ ages 12 and 13 โ in what apparently was a subway surfing game that turned fatal, authorities said. MTA President Demetrius Crichlow said in a statement that “getting on top of a subway car isnโt โsurfingโ โ itโs suicide.โ
Authorities have tried to address the problem with public awareness campaigns โ including a new one featuring Grammy Award-winning rapper Cardi B โ and by deploying drones to catch thrill-seekers in the act. But for some, a more fundamental question is not being addressed: Why are kids like KaโVon able to climb on top of subway cars in the first place? Making trains harder to climb, and train surfers more easy to detect with cameras and sensors, could be part of the solution, some experts say.
