Stupid, stupid, stupid.

[conuly]

After a video of teenagers playing chicken with a subway train gained attention this week, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said they “should be taken into custody and then they should have their heads examined.”

The video, shot at the Kingston Avenue station in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, was uploaded to YouTube in December by the news site Crownheights.info. NBC New York and My Fox NY both ran segments on the video after Gothamist published a post about it on Tuesday.

In the video, which Crownheights.com said was made by a reader waiting for a train, about a half-dozen teenagers jump down onto the tracks, some of them staying until after the lights of an oncoming No. 3 train appear. The last youth jumps back up onto the platform about 10 seconds before the train arrives at the station.

“Playing on or near subway tracks is one of the most dangerous things anyone can do, 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,” a spokesman for the agency, Charles Seaton, said in a statement. “The individuals depicted in this video should be taken into custody and then they should have their heads examined.”

Every word of that is utter truth. Some people... I don't even know what could possibly be going on in their heads, and I'm sure I don't want to know!

Comments

[dandelion.livejournal.com]

That's one good thing about having a live third rail...people know not to do that.

[conuly]

We've got one too! They're just stupid! They think being stupid makes them brave, but no, they're just teenagers and stupid!

[dandelion.livejournal.com]

The London one's a bit more dangerous, though, because it's technically a fourth rail system - there's also a live rail running between the two rails the train uses, without a cover, so it's a lot harder to avoid. Some people manage it, but usually if you were to fall or jump onto the track you'd hit that rail. You can't just stand or lie between the two running rails and be safe.

[janewilliams20.livejournal.com]

I think it's called "being a teenager". We didn't have trains to play with, but we did play chicken with buses and lorries.

[conuly]

I never was quite that addled as a teenager.