Mother of teen who died while subway surfing begs others not to do it – ‘Think of the pain you will cause your family’

The heartbroken mother of a teenage girl who died last weekend after falling from a subway train said she was so distraught she didn’t want to live – and begged other children not to participate the dangerous social media stunt.

“Stop (subway) surfing — it’s not a game,” mother Maria Elena Ortiz, 31, told The Post on Tuesday between sobs. “When you die, think of the pain you will cause your family. Please kids, don’t do it.

“I don’t want to be alive right now,” Ortiz, a cleaning worker from Jackson Heights, Queens, added as she spoke through an interpreter. “I feel so desperate. She was my baby.”

A family friend named Ever also said no one knew 13-year-old Krystel Romero was riding on top of trains — they didn’t even think she was taking the subway.

“They did it for social media,” Ever said of Romero and her 14-year-old friend, who was seriously injured when the two girls fell from train No. 7 in Corona Sunday evening.

“Social media is crazy right now. They just want likes,” Ever said. “Don’t take a risk just because of TikTok likes. They think they can make money with their social media.”

Her comments echoed the views of Mayor Eric Adams, who spoke about Romero’s death during his weekly press conference on Tuesday.

“I don’t know if we really understand what social media is doing to our children,” Adams says. “Social media has radicalized and hijacked our children.

“It’s unbelievable that you can ride a subway and 10 million people will watch it, and we show that over and over again,” Hizzoner continued. “They are more impressionable at that young age. You know, as kids you leave a karate movie and start kicking ass like Bruce Lee. And that’s the same.”

At another, unrelated news conference, 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.”

That includes “thousands and thousands” of printed and verbal messages flashing and playing across the subway system, as well as asking social media companies to remove the viral clips as they are posted.

“We’re checking every day to make sure they’re taking them down and making sure they’re not getting out,” Lieber said. “It breaks the hearts of New Yorkers that children – many of them just good kids – are being injured and even, God forbid, killed by this dangerous activity.”

But it is not clear whether the campaign is working.

The depth of the problem was revealed again when Romero became the sixth person to die while surfing the subway this year – a devastating number that has already surpassed the five-death mark by 2023.

The teen and her friend were on top of a southbound 7 train when they fell between the cars and were run over at the 111th Street station around 11 p.m. Sunday, police said.

Romero was pronounced dead immediately after her horrific fall, leaving her mother “really in shock,” Ever said.

“Krystel’s mother told her not to do something like that,” she said. “I don’t know what made her make this decision… She fell for likes on TikTok.”

Romero’s boyfriend was in critical condition at Elmhurst Hospital on Monday – sources told The Post she had a skull fracture, a brain bleed and could not breathe on her own.

The accident closely followed a similar accident that killed the 13-year-old Adolfo Sorzano, who died last week while surfing on the subway in Queens.

“Please don’t ride the subway,” Adolfo Sanabria, his heartbroken father, told The Post on Monday as he begged other children not to try the risky stunt. “Please think of the pain it will cause your parents.”

The MTA’s Lieber said the city needs parents and schools to “crack down on kids who have shown a tendency to do this, because we need to save their lives.”

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

“They can’t take chances with their lives,” Lieber 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.”

Adams echoed this, saying parents “need to get involved.”

“They have to play a role in this partnership,” he said.

Ever, the family friend, said the same thing on Tuesday.

“It’s not about taking the videos down, it’s about parents having to tell their children, ‘If you make stupid videos, this could happen to you,’” she said.

“Children, please listen to your parents,” she continued. “Think of your parents, think of your family. You could end up like this.”

– Additional reporting by Joe Marino