A mother whose teenage daughter died in a subway surfing stunt has given an emotional warning to other teenagers not to take part in a dangerous social media trend.
Around 11 p.m. Sunday (October 27), Christel Romero and a friend boarded the front of the southbound No. 7 train. Police said the two men fell between cars at the 111th Street Station in Queens, New York, and were hit.
Romero was pronounced dead at the scene, and his friend was taken to Elmhurst Hospital with a fractured skull, bleeding from the brain, and a critical condition in which he was unable to breathe on his own, the New York Post reported.
Romero’s mother, Maria Elena Ortiz, told the magazine she expressed the sadness she felt over her daughter’s death and said she did not want other families to go through this painful experience.
“Stop [subway] “Surfing is not a game,” the 31-year-old said through an interpreter on Tuesday. “Think of the pain it would cause your family if you died. Please, children, don’t do that.”
“I don’t want to live right now,” Ortiz admitted. “I feel so hopeless. She was my baby.”
Subway surfing is a dangerous trend that has killed 11 people in New York City over the past two years. Image photo: Getty Images
A family friend also said no one knew Romero was subway surfing, echoing Ortiz’s warning of a worrying trend.
“Social media is crazy right now. They just want likes,” Eber said. “Don’t take risks just for TikTok likes. They think they can make money from social media.”
Romero is not the only person to die from subway surfing: six people have died so far this year, up from five last year.
Just last week, a similar death occurred when 13-year-old Adolfo Solzano died while surfing the subway in Queens.
“I want you to think about the pain this is causing my parents,” grief-stricken father Adolfo Sorzan told the media on Monday, pleading with other children not to ride at the front of the subway.
On Tuesday (October 29), New York City Mayor Eric Adams spoke at his weekly press conference about Romero’s death and the impact of social media on today’s youth.
“I don’t know if we really understand what social media is doing to our kids,” Adams says.
“Social media has radicalized and hijacked our children.”
“I can’t imagine getting on the subway and having 10 million people watch it.” [it]And we’ve shown that over and over again. ”
Furthermore, he added: “They’re more susceptible when they’re younger. You know, when you’re a kid, you watch a karate movie and then you start kicking like Bruce Lee. And it’s the same thing.”
So what is being done to prevent this?
Jano Lieber, CEO of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, said there were “thousands” of printed and spoken messages circulating in the subway, prompting social media sites to remove videos related to the trend. It is said that they are requesting.
Lieber also said that parents and schools “have to deal harshly with kids who exhibit such tendencies, because we have to save their lives.”
“Please! Parents, teachers and other guardians, please help children understand that this is not a game. If children get into this problem, we need people to pull them back,” he added. Ta.
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