# Train surfing? It’s a thing. 2 SF CA teens died in the last 2 weeks (WARNING: graphic photo) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 15, 2024, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/train-surfing-it-s-a-thing-2-sf-ca-teens-died-in-the-last-2-weeks-warning-graphic-photo/997590 "2024-02-15T03:54:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2024, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/train-surfing-it-s-a-thing-2-sf-ca-teens-died-in-the-last-2-weeks-warning-graphic-photo/997590/1 "2024-02-15T03:54:38Z")
Have you heard of this? It’s not a recent phenomenon. _ **Kids have been doing this for over 10 years.** _ **[2 BAY AREA TEENS DIE WHILE ‘TRAIN SURFING’ ON BART: HERE’S WHAT PARENTS NEED TO KNOW](https://abc7news.com/amp/train-surfing-dangerous-social-media-trend-teens-deaths-bart/14421204)** Quoting: “SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) – In San Francisco, two teenagers have died in the last two weeks doing what is known as “train surfing” a trend that is popular on social media where teens climb to the roof of moving trains.” Or here, **[The Crazy Train Surfers Who Flirt With Death for Sport](https://is.gd/LDVUyG)** Or video: **[Dancing with Death – The Train Surfers of Soweto](https://bit.ly/3UA9N2O)** What the phuq? ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2024, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/train-surfing-it-s-a-thing-2-sf-ca-teens-died-in-the-last-2-weeks-warning-graphic-photo/997590/2 "2024-02-15T03:55:05Z")
5 pictures. **Warning, the 5th pic is a little disturbing.** [![](https://i.imgur.com/eJxtOLm.jpeg) ](https://i.imgur.com/eJxtOLm.jpeg) [![](https://i.imgur.com/U0UEYlM.jpeg) ](https://i.imgur.com/U0UEYlM.jpeg) [![](https://i.imgur.com/IoCMx2I.jpg) ](https://i.imgur.com/IoCMx2I.jpg) [![](https://i.imgur.com/8fVZ3yF.jpeg) ](https://i.imgur.com/8fVZ3yF.jpeg) . . . . . . . . . **Warning: a little disturbing.** . . This is very sad. But at least this kid lived. [![](https://i.imgur.com/vzIxGox.jpeg) ](https://i.imgur.com/vzIxGox.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2024, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/train-surfing-it-s-a-thing-2-sf-ca-teens-died-in-the-last-2-weeks-warning-graphic-photo/997590/3 "2024-02-15T03:57:59Z")
I just learned of this, because the news has those two boys here who died. One was 19, the other 15. Many of us did some stupid shit when we were kids, and some we could have died from. But this… (sigh) ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2024, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/train-surfing-it-s-a-thing-2-sf-ca-teens-died-in-the-last-2-weeks-warning-graphic-photo/997590/4 "2024-02-15T04:06:05Z")
> [@Bullitt](#): > > Many of us did some stupid shit when we were kids, and some we could have died from. But this… (sigh) I certainly did my fair share of stupid shit as a kid but, mostly, I was aware enough to not do something where one mistake was deadly (or catastrophic). Although, I did climb pretty high in more than a few trees which I suppose a fall from would have been very bad or deadly. Somehow that seems less dangerous than this though. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2024, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/train-surfing-it-s-a-thing-2-sf-ca-teens-died-in-the-last-2-weeks-warning-graphic-photo/997590/5 "2024-02-15T04:38:36Z")
10 years? That’s been a thing in NYC for as long as I can remember. I have always seen signs and heard announcements warning riders of the dangers of subway surfing. ---
**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2024, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/train-surfing-it-s-a-thing-2-sf-ca-teens-died-in-the-last-2-weeks-warning-graphic-photo/997590/6 "2024-02-15T04:47:30Z")
Want to see dumb kids? Look for videos of folks in India doing stupid stuff with trains. Lots of electrocutions from the overhead wires. There’s a whole sub reddit. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2024, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/train-surfing-it-s-a-thing-2-sf-ca-teens-died-in-the-last-2-weeks-warning-graphic-photo/997590/7 "2024-02-15T09:02:01Z")
In 1902, when he was 16, my great great grandfather hopped on the back bumper of a streetcar, as was apparently the custom for careless young men. Another streetcar came along, its brakes failed, and he was smooshed between the streetcars. His leg was so badly injured that it had to be amputated. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2024, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/train-surfing-it-s-a-thing-2-sf-ca-teens-died-in-the-last-2-weeks-warning-graphic-photo/997590/8 "2024-02-15T09:18:55Z")
Ouch. Poor kid. I read somewhere that South Africa considers itself to be where this train surfing phenomenon got started (or at least started taking off). With all of these not-smart activities, somewhere, Charles Darwin is shaking his head knowingly. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2024, 9:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/train-surfing-it-s-a-thing-2-sf-ca-teens-died-in-the-last-2-weeks-warning-graphic-photo/997590/9 "2024-02-15T09:21:39Z")
You do not mess around with trains. They are big, they are dangerous, and the only safe place to ride them is inside a passenger train car. If you must play with trains, then make sure that they are HO or N-scale model trains, set up on a table in your basement rec room. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2024, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/train-surfing-it-s-a-thing-2-sf-ca-teens-died-in-the-last-2-weeks-warning-graphic-photo/997590/10 "2024-02-15T09:32:14Z")
I recall lots of panicky warnings from teachers and administrators about the dangers of train surfing back in the 1980’s. And your OP immediately made me think of [this song from 1996](https://youtu.be/KRXty8lDUW0) which includes two kids dying “dancing with a train.” I’ve always assumed that meant train surfing as well. There were, of course, also the kids back in the depression who rode the rails looking for work. But I suppose that was necessity, not recreational adrenaline addiction. Still, a great many of them lost their limbs or their lives. As long as we close our eyes to child abuse and neglect, there will be kids who do not treat their own lives as precious. Why should they, when nobody else does until the threat to their lives is also making somebody late to work? ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2024, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/train-surfing-it-s-a-thing-2-sf-ca-teens-died-in-the-last-2-weeks-warning-graphic-photo/997590/11 "2024-02-15T11:26:57Z")
Don’t try train surfing in Indonesia: > **[Concrete balls threaten Indonesia train 'surfers'](https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna46021563)** > > Indonesia has adopted a potentially deadly new tactic in an attempt to stop people illegally riding the roofs of trains: grapefruit-sized concrete balls hung over the tracks. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2024, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/train-surfing-it-s-a-thing-2-sf-ca-teens-died-in-the-last-2-weeks-warning-graphic-photo/997590/12 "2024-02-15T11:38:49Z")
I think the only (relatively) new thing about train surfing is that we now call it train surfing. mmm ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2024, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/train-surfing-it-s-a-thing-2-sf-ca-teens-died-in-the-last-2-weeks-warning-graphic-photo/997590/13 "2024-02-15T12:10:38Z")
Really? When did it become a thing? Never mind. Wiki actually has a history page of it. > **[Train surfing | History](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Train_surfing#History)** > > The phenomenon of riding on the outside of trains came with the appearance of the first railway lines. On a series of first railroads, riding on rooftops and footboards of trains was common, but over time, starting from the second half of the 19th century, with an increase in the sizes and speed of trains, passenger coaches began to be produced fully covered and insulated from streets with a placement of all passenger seats inside carriages in order to improve the safety of passengers and prevent... “The phenomenon of riding on the outside of trains came with the appearance of the first railway lines…” Amazing. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2024, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/train-surfing-it-s-a-thing-2-sf-ca-teens-died-in-the-last-2-weeks-warning-graphic-photo/997590/14 "2024-02-15T12:20:28Z")
It’s a subset of the greater, “I’m going to do the craziest most reckless thing possible to get as much social media attention as I can.” Google the topic. You will have a lot of viewing material. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2024, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/train-surfing-it-s-a-thing-2-sf-ca-teens-died-in-the-last-2-weeks-warning-graphic-photo/997590/15 "2024-02-15T13:23:32Z")
> [@Bullitt](#): > > _ **Kids have been doing this for over 10 years.** _ Try 40+… Train surfing was how I got to school for a couple of years. We did not do it for fun. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2024, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/train-surfing-it-s-a-thing-2-sf-ca-teens-died-in-the-last-2-weeks-warning-graphic-photo/997590/16 "2024-02-15T13:41:55Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Train surfing was how I got to school for a couple of years. Did you ride on top? ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2024, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/train-surfing-it-s-a-thing-2-sf-ca-teens-died-in-the-last-2-weeks-warning-graphic-photo/997590/17 "2024-02-15T13:42:06Z")
My Dad told tales of being a tween in 1930s Chicago. In the winter it was considered normal boyhood fun to sneak out into traffic, grab the rear bumper of a big bulky 1930s-era car, & be towed through the snowy streets hunkered down where the driver couldn’t see you. You’re just wearing your normal street shoes sliding along in the slushy mess. Such fun! Which would work great until you hit a dry patch, a big lump of ice, a pothole, or whatever, your feet stopped but the bumper didn’t, you fell, and the car right behind yours ran over you. One of his pals was crippled that way and of course his “gang” kept doing it anyhow. Reckless stupid and boys go together like PB & J. And have ever since Og and his brother Grog used to taunt wooly mammoths for fun. Always will too. I certainly filled my own personal reckless stupid square to overflowing. I never heard him talk about train surfing, but it’d totally be the sort of thing he’d have done. ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2024, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/train-surfing-it-s-a-thing-2-sf-ca-teens-died-in-the-last-2-weeks-warning-graphic-photo/997590/18 "2024-02-15T13:49:38Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > In the winter it was considered normal boyhood fun to sneak out into traffic, grab the rear bumper of a big bulky 1930s-era car, & be towed through the snowy streets hunkered down where the driver couldn’t see you. Kids in my school were doing that in the '70s. We called it bumper shining. Teachers were not amused. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2024, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/train-surfing-it-s-a-thing-2-sf-ca-teens-died-in-the-last-2-weeks-warning-graphic-photo/997590/19 "2024-02-15T13:54:16Z")
No, hanging off the side or between the carriages. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2024, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/train-surfing-it-s-a-thing-2-sf-ca-teens-died-in-the-last-2-weeks-warning-graphic-photo/997590/20 "2024-02-15T13:54:19Z")
ETA: @74westy 2 posts up. I’m not surprised it still goes on. I grew up and now live where it doesn’t snow, but I’ve seen kids doing that same basic maneuver wearing rollerblades both back then and recently. My point was aimed at the OP: nothing about crazy boy stuff is new - it’s all eternal. The details just change depending on where and when you were a boy. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/train-surfing-it-s-a-thing-2-sf-ca-teens-died-in-the-last-2-weeks-warning-graphic-photo/997590.md?page=2)