Mom of teenage girl who died trainsurfing gives heartbreaking warning as mayor Eric Adams hits out at social media trend ‘hijacking’ young people

The heartbroken mother of a teenage girl who died while surfing on the subway is warning others about the dangerous TikTok trend, as New York Mayor Eric Adams hits out on social media for ‘hijacking’ young people.

Krystel Romero, 13, was pronounced dead at the scene on Sunday after she and an unidentified 14-year-old friend fell from the top of a 7 train in Queens, New York and were run over at the 111th Street station.

Her mother, Maria Elena Ortiz, 31, now says she no longer wants to live.

“I feel so desperate, she was my baby,” Ortiz told the New York Post through an interpreter, as she begged other teens not to get involved in the dangerous stunt.

‘Stop [subway] surfing – it’s not a game,” she said. “When you die, think of the pain you will cause your family. Please kids, don’t do it.’

A family friend named Ever claimed that no one knew Romero sat on top of trains — and they didn’t even think she took the subway.

He said her death left her grieving mother “really in shock.”

“Krystel’s mother told her not to do something like that,” he revealed to the Post. “I don’t know what made her make this decision… She fell on the likes track on TikTok.

“They did it for social media,” he continued, calling social media “crazy right now” because teens “just want likes” and “think they can make money off their social media.”

“Don’t take a risk just because of TikTok likes,” he warned others.

Romero’s death is the sixth surfing fatality on the subway this year – more than the five deaths last year.

Her friend, meanwhile, remains in critical condition at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens. Unidentified sources tell the Post that she has a skull fracture, a brain hemorrhage and cannot breathe on her own.

The tragic accident mirrors a similar accident just a week earlier, when 13-year-old Adolfo Sorzano died while surfing on the subway in Queens.

His parents had warned the teen against engaging in the risky behavior eight months earlier, when his mother, Milene Sorzano, found videos on his phone of him surfing the subway – which he posted to social media. told Pix 11.

The family now remembers him as a child who was “full of life with dreams and hopes” whose death “left a void that is impossible to fill.” according to an online fundraiser for his funeral expenses.

“I ask you with all my heart to help us say goodbye to him with the dignity he deserves,” Sorzano wrote.

Adolfo’s father is now also begging others not to follow in his son’s footsteps.

‘Please don’t drive [atop] the metro,” Adolfo Sanabria told the Post. ‘Please think of the pain it will cause your parents.

Other fatalities include Alam Reyes, 14, who fell from an F train at Coney Island in Brooklyn in January and died at the scene, and an unidentified 13-year-old boy who died in June while surfing the subway in the Bronx .

In July, 15-year-old Anthony Bhagwandeen also died after jumping on a Queens train.

And last month, 11-year-old Cayden Thompson died while subway surfing on a G train in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

His death prompted his uncle, a teenager himself, to vow never to try the trend again.

‘I became addicted to it. I saw videos online and decided to do it,” said 15-year-old Christian Vega told CBS News.

‘It’s very easy to get addicted to that kind of thing because once you do it, nothing will ever make it better like the adrenaline rush you get.

“Other kids who are thinking about subway surfing and other kids who are still doing it, just stop. It’s not worth your life,” he said.

After Romero’s death, New York City Mayor Eric Adams wrote on social media that he was “heartbroken to learn that subway surfing — and the pursuit of social media influence — stole another life.”

“We’re doing everything we can to raise awareness against this dangerous trend, but we need all New Yorkers – and our social media companies – to do their part, too.

“No post is worth your future,” he said.

The mayor also discussed the issue at a press conference on Tuesday, saying, “I don’t know if we really understand what social media is doing to our children.

“Social media has radicalized and hijacked our children,” he claimed. ‘It’s unimaginable that you can ride the subway and ten million people will be watching it [it] and we show that again and again.’

He went on to say that teens “are more impressionable at that young age.

“You know, as kids you leave a karate movie and start kicking like Bruce Lee,” Adams told reporters. “And it’s the same thing.”

At a separate news conference on Tuesday, Janno Lieber, CEO of the Metropolitan Transit Authority, said the agency “has done so much to reverse this terrible, dangerous trend” and “will continue to push.”

He said the effort includes “thousands and thousands” of print and verbal messages as part of the MTA’s “Ride inside, stay alive” campaign, warning of the dangers of subway surfing that flash and play on the subway system.

But Lieber said he is also asking social media companies to remove the viral clips of teens subway surfing as soon as they are posted.

“We’re always checking, every day, to make sure they’re taking them down and they’re not getting out,” he said.

In the meantime, Lieber is asking parents and school officials to “crack down on kids who have shown a tendency to do this, because we have to save their lives.”

‘Please! Parents, teachers and other caregivers: make sure this is not a game,” he said. “We need people to pull kids back if they get involved in this.

“They can’t take chances with their lives,” he continued. ‘This isn’t like a video game, you don’t get another chance. You can’t just restart: this is one chance. If you lose, if you do something stupid, you lose your life.”

He added that it “breaks the hearts of New Yorkers that children – many of them just good kids – are getting hurt and even, God forbid, killed by this dangerous activity.”