Officials said Tuesday that a 16-year-old boy rescued from a 50-foot shaft on the Queensboro Bridge had planned to share the risky stunt on TikTok.
According to the FDNY, the teenager became trapped in a shaft on the lower level of the bridge on the Queens side. Emergency crews responded shortly after 9 p.m. Monday night.
Investigators said the boy climbed down a ladder into a shaft within the bridge’s structure but lost his footing and became stuck in a narrow passage. Authorities believe he may have been inside for several hours before rescuers reached him.
“It was a complex and lengthy operation,” FDNY Deputy Chief Nicholas Corrado said. “We reached the victim, secured him, removed him from the shaft and transferred him to an ambulance.”
The teen, who is from Long Island and was alone at the time, had reportedly planned to post a video of the stunt online.
He was transported by FDNY EMS to Weill Cornell Medical Center in critical condition but has since stabilized, police said.
The incident is the latest in a string of social media-driven challenges that have led to fatal, near-fatal and destructive consequences.
From “subway surfing,” which has resulted in deaths and critical injuries throughout the boroughs, to the “Kool-Aid Man Challenge,” which has caused damage to backyard fences on Staten Island, teens continue to participate in risky stunts in pursuit of online glory and peer approval.
Last spring, the Advance/SILive.com reported on incidents nearly weekly across the Island in which residents awoke to find vinyl fence slats scattered on the ground or damaged beyond repair.
Homeowners questioned whether their property would be next, while authorities expressed frustration over what they described as senseless acts of vandalism.
“This behavior is stupid, arrogant and reprehensible, and the parents of these children should be ashamed,” District Attorney Michael E. McMahon said at the time.
The dangers of such stunts were underscored in spring 2023, when a 15-year-old boy was fatally injured while riding on top of a Staten Island Railway train in Annadale, according to the MTA Police Department.
Gregory Jantzen, 15, a student at Tottenville High School, climbed alone onto the top of a train car, police said. He struck a passenger walkway at the Annadale station and suffered severe head trauma. He was taken to Staten Island University Hospital in Ocean Breeze, where he was pronounced dead.