Subway Surfing Video Recalls Memory Of Grisly Death In Bensonhurst

Kids, don’t try this at the train station.

With a recent video of a man surfing the J train, there is worry that copycats inspired by the video will engage in the same ridiculous and reckless antics, according to Metro NY.

“If there’s one copycat that hurt themselves, I wouldn’t be able to deal with it,” said Erik, a self-proclaimed expert of train surfing who has quit the sport, in the Metro article. “It’s just stupid.”

Danger, adrenaline, and that bottomless well of Darwinist fuel – stupidity – all converge in the form of train surfing. But, of course, the risk of severe injuries or death is hardly enough to persuade teens to stop thinking these hulking masses of steel speeding through dark tunnels at more than 60 miles per hour is anything other than a jumble gym.

If that were the case – if history had any effect on how some adolescents behave – then the case of Billy Quinn and Cory Hammerstone ought to have put an end to subway surfing more than 10 years ago. Bensonhurst residents Quinn and Hammerstone were two 15-year-old boys found dead at the Bay Parkway subway station in 2000. They were riding on top of the N train when they were both struck by a beam that hung near the entrance of the station. One bloody body was found sprawled out on the platform; the other on the tracks.

The N train, apparently, isn’t the only favorite for subway surfers in Southern Brooklyn. Erik, the expert, mentions that the best subway lines to surf are the “F and the B in Brooklyn, because the elevated trains make for brilliant views.”

Brilliant, indeed.