The anguished mother of a young girl who died last weekend after falling over the top of a subway car said she is so upset that she doesn’t want to live. She also pleaded with other children not to engage in the risky social media prank.
In between sobbing fits, 31-year-old mother Maria Elena Ortiz told The Post on Tuesday, “Stop [subway] surfing — it’s not a game.” Consider the suffering you will bring your family if you pass away. Please don’t do it, youngsters.
Speaking via a translator, Ortiz, a cleaner from Jackson Heights, Queens, continued, “I don’t want to live right now.” “I’m really desperate. She was my child.
A family acquaintance who goes by the moniker Ever also stated that no one knew 13-year-old Krystel Romero was riding on top of the trains; they didn’t even believe she took the metro.
“They were doing it for social media,” Ever said of Romero and her 14-year-old friend, who was gravely injured when the two fell off a No. 7 train in Corona on Sunday night.
“Social networking is quite popular right now. “They just want likes,” Ever explained. “Don’t take a risk merely to get TikTok likes. They believe they can make money via social networking.
Her remarks echoed Mayor Eric Adams’, who mentioned Romero’s death during his weekly press meeting on Tuesday.
“I don’t know if we really understand what social media is doing to our children,” Adams told the audience. “Social media has radicalized and manipulated our children.
“It’s unimaginable that you can ride on a subway train and 10 million people will view [it], and we show that over and over,” Hizzoner continued. “They are more impressionable at such young ages.” You know, as a kid, you leave a karate movie and start kicking like Bruce Lee. And that is the same thing.
At a separate, unconnected press conference, Metropolitan Transit Authority CEO Janno Lieber stated that the agency “has done so much to try to push back on this terrible, dangerous trend” and will “keep pushing.”
This includes “thousands and thousands” of written and vocal messages that flash and play in the subway system, as well as a request that social media companies remove viral videos as soon as they are posted.
“We’re always checking every day to make sure they do take them down and that they don’t get out,” Lieber told the newspaper. “It breaks New Yorkers’ hearts that kids — a lot of them are just good kids — are being injured and even, God forbid, killed by this dangerous activity.”
However, it is unclear whether the effort is effective.
Romero became the sixth person to die while subway surfing this year, surpassing the five-death mark set in 2023.
The youngster and her friend were riding on top of a southbound 7 train when they slipped between the cars and were ran over at the 111th Street station around 11 p.m. Sunday, according to police.
Romero was pronounced dead at the scene shortly after her horrible fall, leaving her mother “really in shock,” Ever added.
“Krystel’s mom told her not to do anything like this,” he told me. “I’m not sure what prompted her make this decision… She fell on the tracks to get likes on TikTok.”
Romero’s friend was in critical condition at Elmhurst Hospital on Monday, with sources telling The Post that she had a cracked skull, a brain bleed, and couldn’t breathe on her own.
The accident occurred shortly after that of 13-year-old Adolfo Sorzano, who died while subway surfing in Queens the previous week.
“Please don’t ride [atop] the subway,” his distraught father, Adolfo Sanabria, told The Post Monday, pleading with other children not to attempt the deadly stunt. “Please think about the pain it will cause your parents.”
Lieber of the MTA stated that the city requires parents and schools to “bear down hard on kids who have shown a propensity to do this, because we’ve got to save their lives.”
“Please! Parents, teachers, and other caregivers should ensure that children understand this is not a game. “We need people to pull kids back when they get involved in this,” he explained.
“They cannot take chances with their lives,” Lieber added. “This isn’t like a video game; you won’t get another shot. You can’t simply reboot. This is your one chance. If you lose, or do something stupid, you will lose your life.”
Adams echoed this, noting that parents “must take part.”
“They must play a role in this partnership,” he told them.
Ever, a family friend, said the same thing Tuesday.
“It’s not about taking the videos down, it’s about parents who need to tell kids, ‘If you make stupid videos, this is what could happen to you,'” he went on.
“Kids, please listen to your parents,” he said. “Think about your parents and your family.” “You could end up like this.”