Heart-stopping drone footage released by the NYPD Thursday shows subway surfers jumping for joy atop trains — as Mayor Eric Adams insisted the cameras in the sky saved 114 daredevils’ lives this year, despite a tragic six fatalities.
The previously unannounced aerial drone program has performed some 900 flights since last year to spot and thwart subway surfers, Adams revealed during a Queens press conference.
But as Adams seemingly downplayed recent tragedies — including the deaths of two 13 year olds riding atop trains in the past week — as he touted the drone program’s successes in stopping the scourge of subway surfing.
“We see the lives that are lost, but rarely do you get the medal for the lives that are saved,” he lamented.
The terrifying videos released by the NYPD show reckless subway surfers running car-to-car, dangling from the back of trains and even leaping into the air as speeding trains pass below their feet.
The subway surfers caught by the drones’ cameras — and subsequently rousted from trains by cops — averaged 14 years old, Adams said.
Kaz Daughtry, the NYPD’s deputy commissioner of operations, said the 7 line was a particular favorite for subway surfers owing to its “iconic” view of Manhattan’s skyline.
He said cops will take young subway surfers spotted by drones into custody and show the footage to their parents in an effort to warn the kids against dangerously hopping atop trains.
“As far as we see them coming down in between the cars, and we’ll get them coming down in between the cars,” he said.
The program began as a pilot in November 2023, but shifted to a permanent basis in June, officials said.
“This is an inexpensive way of handling the expense of losing a loved one or a child,” Adams said.
Adams has defiantly evangelized the increased use of drones for public safety uses, even as high-profile robots often failed to deliver, such when his Times Square subway “snitchBOT” that ended up gathering dust after a showy rollout.
But Hizzoner, during the news conference outside a Queens school, did acknowledge it would take more than drones to curb the dangerous subway surfing craze.
The mayor urged New Yorkers to call 911 if they spot subway surfers — and repeated his calls for social media companies to crack down on viral videos that inspire kids to hop atop subway trains.
Six New York City youths have died subway surfing this year, eclipsing the five fatalities from 2023, officials said.
The most recent tragedy unfolded Sunday, as two teen girls plummeted from a southbound 7 train rolling into the 111th Street station in Queens.
Krystal Romero, 13, was pronounced dead at the scene, while her 14-year-old fellow daredevil remained in critical condition at Elmhurst Hospital. Sources said the surviving teen had a fractured skull, brain bleeding and couldn’t breathe on her own.
A pair of heart-stopping videos that surfaced after Romero’s death showed people, including at least five kids, riding atop subway cars near the same station.
The tragedy followed another death last week, also involving a 13-year-old.
Brooklyn boy Adolfo Sorzano was killed performing the stunt on a train headed into the the Forest Avenue station in Queens.
The deaths unfolded in spite of increasing desperate efforts by New York City and MTA officials to warn youths against the dangers of subway surfing.
Many officials and grief-stricken parents of subway surfing victims have blamed social media companies such as TikTok for letting viral videos depicting the foolhardy stunts proliferate unchecked.
“The social media companies need to step up, take this video down and stop pushing subway surfing challenges to our kids,” said Norma Nazario, the mother of 15-year-old Zackery Nazario, who died last year subway surfing.
