A PENNSYLVANIA teenager has been killed in a TikTok-inspired stunt gone wrong after being hurled from a makeshift ride strapped to a car.
David Nagy, 17, was taking part in a dangerous “table surfing” challenge when tragedy struck on June 1 in the parking lot of Bethlehem’s Freedom High School.
David Nagy, 17, was taking part in a dangerous “table surfing” challenge[/caption]
Tragedy struck on June 1 in the parking lot of Bethlehem’s Freedom High School.[/caption]
Police say a 17-year-old friend tied an upside-down folding table to the back of his car and drove recklessly around the lot while Nagy clung to it.
But the vehicle whipped Nagy into a parked car with such force that he suffered fatal head injuries.
Northampton County District Attorney Stephen Baratta said in a statement: “The driver recklessly operated his vehicle at significant speed such that it whipped the rider sitting on the table into another parked vehicle, resulting in [his] death.”
FOX 29 Philadelphia reported Nagy died on the spot. His friend, who has not been named, is now facing involuntary manslaughter charges.
Baratta called the case especially heartbreaking: “The families did have a closeness and a trust with these close friends – I mean they knew them very well. That’s what’s so heartbreaking in this case.”
Just months before Nagy’s death, another so-called “surfing” stunt in the same Pennsylvania county left a young woman fighting for her life.
Prosecutors say 19-year-old Eniya Serina Alvarado drove her car through a Park and Ride lot near William Penn Highway while her 20-year-old friend attempted to surf on the trunk.
The woman fell and suffered “catastrophic head injuries that will be permanent in nature,” according to Baratta’s office.
Alvarado has been charged with aggravated assault, aggravated assault by vehicle, careless driving, and persons hanging on a vehicle.
Baratta stressed that neither teen driver intended to harm their friends: “They were not planning to injure their victim. However, in both incidents, the action of these drivers were so grossly negligent and reckless that it constituted criminal, culpable state of mind.”
He said both families are united in wanting these cases to act as a warning.
“These families are seeking accountability and hope that these charges will result in deterrence for other youth who may find themselves attracted to the thrill of mimicking dangerous social media challenges that have the potential to injure others,” Baratta explained.
As first-time offenders, neither driver is expected to face prison if they accept plea deals. Instead, Baratta said, they may later be eligible to have their charges expunged.
“I promised these families that in return for the admission by these drivers that they engaged in this criminally reckless behavior, there will be public accountability and that after a successful completion of a period of supervision, these defendants will have the opportunity to ask that their criminal charges be expunged,” he told reporters.
Baratta has called out TikTok and Instagram by name, blasting their role in spreading the dangerous craze.
A TikTok spokesperson said: “Videos involving table and car surfing violate the company’s community guidelines and 99.8 per cent of them are removed proactively, and 92.4 per cent of videos removed for violating the app’s rules are taken down before anyone views them.”
The company said it also redirects searches for “table surfing” to an online resource page warning of the dangers.
Between January and March this year, “99.8 per cent of the videos removed for violating TikTok’s dangerous activities and challenges policy were taken down proactively, with 92.4 per cent of them receiving no views,” TikTok told the press.
But Baratta warned the risks remain high: “It’s important for the public to understand that these challenges can have severe, real-world consequences, creating significant risk to participants and sometimes the bystanders as well.”
The Pennsylvania tragedies are part of a growing pattern.
In Utah last year, a 15-year-old girl was left with a severe brain injury after a similar car-surfing stunt went horribly wrong.
For Nagy’s family, though, the warnings come too late.
A teenage boy is gone, a friend faces the weight of the law, and a community is left to reckon with the devastating price of a viral thrill.
FOX 29 Philadelphia reported Nagy died on the spot[/caption]
