Adams touts NYPD drone successes against subway surfing crisis – despite 6 deaths this year

Heart-stopping drone footage released Thursday by the NYPD shows subway surfers happily jumping above trains — as Mayor Eric Adams stressed that despite six tragic deaths, cameras in the sky have captured 114 daredevils this year. Saved his life.

Adams revealed during a Queens press conference that a previously undisclosed aerial drone program has conducted nearly 900 flights since last year to capture and thwart subway surfers.

But Adams downplayed recent tragedies — including the deaths of two 13-year-olds riding trains last week — as he touted the drone program’s successes in curbing the scourge of subway surfing.

“We look at the lives that are lost, but you hardly get a medal for the lives that are saved,” he lamented.

Horrifying video released by the NYPD shows reckless subway surfers racing from car to car, hanging off the back of trains and even leaping into the air as speeding trains pass beneath their feet .

Adams said subway surfers caught by drone cameras — and later escorted off trains by police — were an average of 14 years old.

NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry said that the 7 Line was a particular favorite of subway surfers because of its “iconic” view of the Manhattan skyline.

He said police would detain young subway surfers spotted by drones and show the footage to their parents in an effort to warn children against boarding trains in a dangerous manner.

“As far as where we see them coming in between the cars, and we’ll see them landing in the middle of the cars,” he said.

The program began as a pilot in November 2023, but was moved to a permanent basis in June, officials said.

“It’s an inexpensive way to handle the expense of losing a loved one or a child,” Adams said.

Adams has fearlessly promoted the growing use of drones for public safety uses, even as high-profile robots often fail to deliver, such as when his Times Square subway “Snitchbot” he finished collecting dust after a cosmetic rollout,

But during a press conference outside a Queens school, Hizzoner acknowledged that stopping the dangerous subway surfing craze will require more than drones.

The mayor urged New Yorkers to call 911 if they see subway surfers — and reiterated his call for social media companies to crack down on viral videos that encourage children to board subway trains.

Six New York City youth have died while subway surfing this year, surpassing the five deaths that occurred in 2023, officials said.

The latest tragedy unfolded on Sunday Two teenage girls fell off southbound road 7 The train is arriving at the 111th Street station in Queens.

Crystal Romero, 13, was pronounced dead at the scene, while her teammate, Daredevil, 14, remains in critical condition at Elmhurst Hospital. The surviving teenager had a fractured skull, bleeding on the brain and was unable to breathe on her own, sources said.

a pair of heart stopping videos Photographs that emerged after Romero’s death showed people, including at least five children, riding subway cars near the same station.

The tragedy followed another death last week, including that of a 13-year-old child.

brooklyn boy adolfo sorzano He died while performing a stunt on a train headed to the Forest Avenue station in Queens.

The deaths came despite New York City’s increasingly desperate efforts mta officer Warning youth about the dangers of subway surfing.

Several authorities and grieving parents of subway surfing victims have blamed social media companies like TikTok for uncontrolled spread of viral videos showing the foolish stunts.

“Social media companies need to step up, remove this video and stop pushing subway surfing challenges for our kids,” said Norma Nazario, mother of 15-year-old Zachary Nazario, who died while subway surfing last year. Went.