A 12-year-old boy suffered a serious head injury early Tuesday after climbing onto the roof of a Red Line train near JFK/UMass Station and falling into the tunnel approaching Andrew Station, according to MBTA Transit Police. The boy managed to climb back aboard a southbound train before rescuers found him, and he was rushed to the hospital with what officials described as a serious but non-life-threatening injury.
The attempted stunt began shortly before 1 a.m. Tuesday, when the boy climbed on top of a Red Line car originating at JFK/UMass Station, according to WHDH. MBTA Transit Police Superintendent Richard Sullivan said the boy fell off the train car and sustained his injuries during the fall. As Universal Hub reported, the boy fell into the tunnel near Andrew Station and then managed to re-board a southbound train before emergency personnel located him.
That stretch of track is especially unforgiving. The Red Line segment between JFK/UMass and Andrew stations transitions from open-air track into an enclosed underground tunnel with tight overhead clearances, as the Dorchester Reporter has noted in its coverage of the corridor, cited by the research dossier tied to this story. Recent MBTA track overhauls completed between late 2024 and early 2026 also eliminated longstanding speed restrictions on the Red Line, restoring full operating speeds across the corridor — meaning trains moving through that section now travel considerably faster than they did just two years ago.
Multi-Agency Response Rushes to Andrew Station
Emergency crews converged on Andrew Station shortly after 1 a.m. to reach the injured child, with Boston Fire Department firefighters, Boston EMS paramedics, and MBTA Transit Police officers all responding, per Caught In Dot's report on the incident. Sullivan expressed hope that the child makes a full recovery, and he used the incident to underscore the extreme danger of train surfing. “Train surfing is an extremely dangerous activity that can cost a person their life,” Sullivan said, according to WHDH.
MBTA Transit Police are investigating the incident. Beyond the risk of falling, official MBTA safety regulations warn that anyone on the tracks or train exteriors faces exposure to an electrified third rail carrying 600 volts, along with the danger of fast-moving trains — hazards that exist across the entire system, not just at the JFK/UMass-to-Andrew transition.
A Recurring Problem With Steep Penalties Attached
Train surfing is not new to the MBTA. In September 2014, an 18-year-old was filmed doing a handstand atop a moving Orange Line train and was subsequently charged with trespassing, CBS News reported at the time. Under Massachusetts General Law Chapter 266, Section 120, anyone caught entering or remaining on restricted transit tracks or equipment can face a criminal trespassing charge carrying a fine of up to $100, up to 30 days in jail, or both — penalties that remain unchanged more than a decade later.
Whether a 12-year-old could be charged, and how he gained access to the top of a train car at 1 a.m., remain open questions that MBTA Transit Police have not yet addressed publicly.
Part of a Wider, Deadlier Trend
Boston's incident lands amid a broader and often deadly surge in youth train surfing tied to viral social media challenges. In New York City, subway surfing fatalities climbed to six in 2024, up from five the year before, while juvenile arrests for the practice jumped 46 percent to 164 in early 2025, with the average age of those arrested just 14, according to The Guardian. New York City has responded with joint drone and field-officer teams that intercepted 114 subway surfers between late 2023 and late 2024, alongside requests to remove more than 10,000 stunt videos online, per NYC.gov.
The trend has proven fatal elsewhere too. In San Francisco, two teenagers died train surfing near Balboa Park BART station in early 2024, a tragedy that prompted wrongful death lawsuits and calls for physical barriers, as Hoodline previously reported. Closer to home, the MBTA has its own history with dangerous stunt riding: in December 2023, transit police sought a pair filmed jumping from a moving Red Line train into the Neponset River. It remains to be seen whether MBTA Transit Police will pursue technology-based deterrents similar to those used in New York, or whether state lawmakers will revisit the state's decades-old trespassing penalties in light of the growing trend.
