11-year-old killed subway surfing in Brooklyn was lured by videos that glorify riding trains

Cayden Thompson had became enraptured by subway surfing months before he died Monday atop a G train in Brooklyn.

The 11-year-old’s family said he was captivated, like other NYC kids, by videos of others, lured into the stunt by those who share their own exploits and through posts on social media. It’s a powerful force experts say is tough for kids to resist.

“Social media had the worst effect on my son’s life,” Cayden’s mother, Jaida Rivera, 27, said through tears. “He wanted to be cool. He thought all these things were cool. He thought he wasn’t cool enough and he wanted to do these things, but he was so cool!”

For months, his family said, Cayden had talked about riding a train — an activity that’s already cost four NYC teens their lives this year The sixth grader was riding on top of a train when he struck his head on an overhang at the Fourth Ave./Ninth St. stop in Park Slope. He fell to the tracks and was run over by the train, cops said.

“He was talking about [subway surfing] for a couple of months now. He would watch YouTube videos on it, TikTok videos, ” explained Cayden’s uncle, Christian Vega, 15, who was raised as the boy’s brother. “We tried taking his devices away from him, so he can stay away from that. He still had the idea.”

Vega previously said he feels partly responsible for his little nephew’s death because he partook in the dangerous stunt himself, even posting videos of his escapades online.

“He got into this situation looking up to me — because I’m an ex-subway surfer, I used to do it. He would see videos online, not only mine but seeing other kids’ videos,” Vega previously told the News.

Experts say watching videos of others, often shared via social media, is tough for a youngster to resist.

“They make it cool, they make it fun, they make it attractive. And you combine that with an adolescent young boy, who by definition has bad judgment, and you have a perfect storm,” said attorney Matthew Bergman, the founder of the Social Media Victims Law Center.

The family repeatedly tried to dissuade Cayden, warning him of the dangers of train surfing, and even taking his cell phone away, but it wasn’t enough to stop him. “There’s only so much you can do,” Rivera lamented. “Kids shouldn’t have a phone, they shouldn’t get ahold of making a social media account.”

The MTA and city officials have been working with social media companies to get subway surfing videos off their platforms. At a press conference last year earlier this month the MTA announced an array of social media and internet companies had agreed to step up and remove videos from their platforms, according to a report in the event by City & State.

A spokesperson for TikTok said they don’t allow subway surfing content on their platform. Neither You Tube nor Google immediately responded to a request for comment. The Daily News also reached out to Meta to discuss the issue, but did not hear back.

”No parent should ever lose their child to dangerous social media trends,” Mayor Adams posted Saturday on X. “Our young people have such beautiful lives to live. Subway surfing took another young life this week, and we can all help stop this life threatening behavior. #RideInsideStayAlive.”

Monday’s horror is the fourth recorded subway surfing death this year, according to the NYPD. Five deaths were recorded in 2023.

Sadly, despite all the efforts to curb the dangerous trend, incidents and arrests are both way up — by nearly 70 percent over the past year. A total of 173 subway surfing incidents were reported and 153 people were arrested in 2024 through September 15, compared to 104 incidents reported and 91 people arrested in the same period last year, according to police.

Against this backdrop, the city has launched a public information campaign with the motto, “Subway surfing kills— ride inside, stay alive,” to raise awareness about the dangers of subway surfing. Audio announcements, on-train ads, videos and animations created by Manhattan High School of Art and Design students have been implemented in subway stations and on trains system-wide since the initiative began.

An MTA spokeswoman said agency staff continues to flag social media displays of subway surfing in an effort to remove content that lionizes the often fatal activity. To date, according to the MTA’s data, 10,650 such posts have been removed across various social media platforms.

Bergman is representing Norma Nazario, the mother of 15-year-old Zackery Nazario, who was killed subway surfing atop a Brooklyn-bound J train on February 20, 2023. As the train rumbled across the Williamsburg Bridge, a low beam struck Zackery in the head, knocking him between subway cars. He was run over by the train. Nazario, filed a lawsuit against TikTok, Meta and the MTA on the anniversary of Zackery’s death this year.

The suit claims the social media giants “targeted, goaded and encouraged” Zackery to subway surf, as a result of the “unreasonably dangerous designs” of their platforms.

Norma said she searched her son’s phone after his death and found alarming content on his social media pages, including the “Subway Surfing Challenge.”

“The challenge was let’s see who can subway surf better, let’s see how many trains you can surf in one day and one night, let’s see if you can go over a bridge, let’s see how many tunnels you can go in,” Nazario explained.

Meta and TikTok filed a joint motion to dismiss Nazario’s suit, citing Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, which protects platforms from liability for content posted by third-party users. The suit is still pending in New York County Supreme Court.

Cayden’s death came as the youngest fatality in recent memory.

“He was so full of life,” Rivera said of Cayden. “He was so enthusiastic. He was so interested in so many things. He loved learning new things.”

His mom said her son’s aspirations regularly changed, but he most recently dreamed of being a pro football player when he grew up.

When asked what she’d tell others in the wake of her son’s death, Rivera said: “Hold your kids tighter and avoid technology.”

With Cayla Bamberger and Evan Simko-Bednarski