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New York Post
Daredevils now riding a new wave by standing on top of NYC buses in twist on deadly subway surfing trend
By Matthew Sedacca,
12 days ago
These daredevils are riding a new wave.
Adrenaline junkies are now surfing atop Big Apple buses barreling down major thoroughfares — a new twist on the deadly transit trend of surfing subway cars.
One audacious roof rider captured their illegal trip on an M15 articulated bus, the streetscape blurring past as the steel behemoth hurtled down Second Avenue in Manhattan’s Murray Hill neighborhood, video footage shared on Instagram this week showed.
Another vertigo-inducing clip posted on X in February showed a hoodie-clad youth crouching down on the roof of a different articulated bus — before hopping on to a different section of the vehicle and ducking beneath an electric cable line.
“If there’s something ridiculous, foolhardy and dangerous, teens will figure out how to do it,” straphanger Pamelda Candusso Hirsch, 71, griped to The Post.
Mustapha Sawaneh, who has driven MTA buses along crosstown routes for six years, warned the brazen surfers who are taking their stunts from the city’s underground to the streets face more “unpredictable” and dangerous terrain.
“If a cab cuts in front of you, you have to slam on the breaks. If someone steps out on the street, you have to swerve the bus,” Sawaneh, 26, said.
“If you’re [subway] surfing you can see a train curve ahead, what’s coming up [but] when you’re bus surfing you don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Several bus drivers suspected the reckless riders were somehow scampering aboard their vehicles while they were parked during their 10-minute breaks, or even a 30-second stop at a red light.
“Operators are going to need to check [the top of buses] before we head out,” said veteran operator Jason Williams, 40.
He warned it’s impossible to tell from the driver’s seat whether their bus has a roof-level stowaway “unless someone tells you, and then it might be too late.”
New York City and state officials have attempted to crack down on the scourge of transit surfers, which they say has become more common among teens who are trying to copy what they see on TikTok and Instagram.
In September, the Adams administration and the MTA deployed a public service campaign with ads and announcements warning about the dangers of subway surfing.
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