Desikan Thirunarayanapuram, an editor at The Washington Post, remembers that on that Monday of June 2023, his 15-year-old son Jay told him he didn't need to be worried. "He looked at me and said, 'I can take care of myself, I know how to do it. Nothing is going to happen to me'".

He adopted Jay when he was six and brought him from Mumbai, India, to Maryland, USA. He was an active kid and liked art. He was in an art program at his high school, but suddenly, he decided he didn't want to do regular art; he wanted to do only graffiti work.

"Me and my wife were trying to stop him, and a couple of times, we had to call the cops because we had to find him. They would locate Jay, and we had to go and pick him up", says Desikan.

On that Monday in June, Desikan was working from home, and suddenly, Jay came and showed him a video.

"It was him on top of the train, in the dark. I was shocked because I could see his face on top of the subway for a fraction of a second," says Desikan. "I told him it's a dangerous thing, you shouldn't do it. I told my wife, and she also spoke to him, explaining that it was very dangerous. We told him that we were always waiting at home for him. I don't know why he showed it to me.

Later, they discovered that his son had posted that video on an Instagram account only for his friends. He had a different one for his family.

After a while, they saw Jay's phone and realized he was talking with an Instagram friend called "Ray," who was 17 years older than him and lived in the Bronx, NYC. They shared videos doing subway surfing and supported each other.

Data provided by MTA shows a significant spike in people riding on top of, in between, or outside of train cars in 2022. That year, they also marked a spike in the number of people killed while riding on top or between the train cars. While fewer than 20 people died on the subways in the past several years, 33 died in 2022. The latest data shows that with two months remaining in the year, 18 people have already died between January and October of 2023.

There is a trend about when they prefer to do it: most of the people who ride on top of the subway do it in the afternoon, and the predilection time to do it is at 3 PM when the sun is still shining, and cell phone cameras can record without light problems.

The increase in users and hours spent on social networks such as TikTok and Instagram could be why Subway Surfing still exists. In fact, in June 2023, Mayor Adams directly blamed TikTok for the death of Zachery Nazario, a 14-year-old boy who fell from the top of the L Line in Brooklyn. In a conference, the Mayor said, "I am calling today for TikTok to ban these videos immediately and take them down."

In response to the accusations, a TikTok spokesperson said: "Our deepest sympathies go out to the family and friends of the young person involved in this incident. This dangerous activity predates our platform, and we strictly remove such content if we see it on TikTok. More than 40,000 safety professionals are dedicated to keeping our community safe and work diligently to remove harmful content when found".

On July 7, Michael Kemper, Chief of the Transit Police Department, said in a Public Safety Briefing that "apprehensions and over 70 arrests" related to subway surfing. "Our efforts include intelligence gathering, investigations, deployment, enforcement, which includes arrests and outreach," said Kemper.

One month later, NYPD released a TikTok video asking teenagers to stop doing subway surfing.

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Line 7, with 68% of its stations above the ground, has become the most popular for people to practice subway surfing in the last two years. The line runs from Queens to Northern Brooklyn. According to information about NYC Subway , Flushing Line (7) is elevated "from east of Hunters Point station to east of Willets Point station. Main Street terminal is underground".

In the last year, the five most popular stations for subway surfing were the 7, F, 4, 6, and 1 lines, all of which have elevated stations. Comparing the last 10 years, the same lines remain as the most frequented for subway surfing, including line 2.

According to MTA data , 5.5 miles of the 7 line are above ground: 15 stations, 68% of the line's total, are elevated, and seven are underground. On the F line, 28 stations are underground, and 14 are above ground, all running through Brooklyn. Fourteen stations on Line 4, which crosses through the Bronx, do not pass through tunnels, translating to 4.8 miles of above-ground stations.

Additionally, subway surfing may be even more dangerous today than a few years ago. On March 23, 2021, the MTA doubled or increased the speed of many subway lines. For example, the northbound curve entering City Hall went from 6 m.p.h. to 15 m.p.h. The express tracks on Queens Blvd. increased from 35 to 50 m.p.h.

In the last ten years, 17 people have died because of subway surfing in those fast trains, Lines 4 and 5, which cross the Brown. They are on the list of stations with the most people subway surfing and have a significant portion without tunnels, creating an ideal setting for young people to film themselves subway surfing.

One of these victims was Zachery Nazario, a 15-year-old boy from Brooklyn who died on February 20 after riding the J train and crossing the Williamsburg Bridge. According to the police, Zachery got hit by a low beam, making him fall between two cars, and then got struck by the train at 6:45 PM. His girlfriend was there and saw the scene.

In a press release, the MTA asked social media companies, including Meta, Google, and TikTok, to "reduce access to these videos." They say social media companies have removed over 3,000 videos and photos showing subway surfing.

In November, the NYPD announced the implementation of drones to prevent teenagers from riding the train on top. The images go directly to NYPD headquarters and Metro Transit's Transit Control Center, according to a report from ABC7.

If someone is detected doing subway surfing, police officers could arrive at the station and arrest them.

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Desikan Thirunarayanapuram remembers that in late December, the behavior of his son Jay changed drastically. "He was going through all these issues, and everything was kind of an act of defiance for him."

He said that Jay started with subway surfing because of Urbex, or Urban Exploration, a trend to go to abandoned places and buildings and take pictures there.

"He wanted to do all kinds of very extreme adventures. And we try to focus it on things like indoor rock climbing so that he can just burn his energy doing something. He enjoyed it for a while and thought it wasn't enough. Then, we took him to an indoor car racing place, and he enjoyed it at the time, but it wasn't enough for him because he didn't want to do anything in a controlled fashion. He wanted to do it in his own time", says Desikan.

On Tuesday, as Desikan was leaving for work, Jay left on his bike behind him. "I thought he was just going to a 7-Eleven or somewhere to get some snacks and just soda or something", Desikan says. "Just before leaving, he asked my wife what time his therapy was. She said it's 5:00 and make sure you're back. By that time, he said, yeah, sure, I'll be back".

The therapist called Jay's parents to tell them he didn't arrive at the appointment. They called, but he didn't answer his phone. Desikan was at work at 8:45 PM when the police arrived at his house and told her wife that Jay was found dead in the subway.

"He died by 4:35 or 4:37 in the afternoon. So, within basically 20 minutes after he left home, he just went on the subway and immediately got on a train. And then he climbed out of the train, and before he reached the next station, I think he fell and died".

From Washington DC, Desikan says, "I can sympathize with the parents, I can understand them, but from my experience, I cannot tell them," oh, try to hold on, stop your kid from doing it." Because we tried, and we couldn't do it then. In most cases, you may not even know your kid is doing it. So it is very tough. And I would certainly tell any parent not to blame themselves for it because I don't know; any parent would do all they can to protect their kids, but they can only do what is within their limits in terms of what they know and what they can relate to in the kid."