A gang of youths have been filmed playing a deadly game of chicken on the New York subway. The disturbing video shows a group of five people jumping onto the rails at a station shortly before a train is due to arrive. Despite the grainy detail of the footage, the stunt appears to have been in Brooklyn as the video was loaded onto a website for the Clinton Hill area of the borough.
While three of the jokers climb back on the platform at the first sound of a train approaching, two remain until the locomotive is in plain sight.
A crowd of friends and onlookers shout and jeer at the boys, egging them on in their misadvised venture.
The last boy clamours back onto the platform with less than 10 seconds before the train would have hit him.
A distressed older woman is seen screaming hysterically at the boys, while another onlooker walks away, presumably not wanting to see the result of an impact.
The transport authority MTA has condemned the stunt, stating that hundreds of people are seriously injured by subway trains every year.
‘Playing on or near subway tracks is one of the most dangerous things anyone can do,’ a MTA spokesman told NBC New York.‘And while you can’t outlaw stupidity you have to remember that 146 people were struck by subway trains last year and 47 of them died as a result.’
The MTA have passed the video onto the police to identify the risk-takers, hoping that they will be found and arrested for their reckless behaviour.
The Daily News stated in March that a new MTA report revealed a steep rise in the number of commuters who are hit by trains.
147 people were hit in 2011, compared to 128 people in 2010.
A third of the people struck died, it said.
