Train surfing
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Train surfing is riding or climbing ("surfing") on the outside of a moving train. This activity is illegal in many countries[citation needed] and is prohibited by administrative law.
[edit] History
Train surfing is a common and usual way to ride trains in India, Indonesia, and South Africa, although it can occur in any area with trains. Individuals may train surf to avoid the cost of a ticket or as a recreational activity. This practice is a serious issue in these countries where people have been killed or injured in accidents.
With the creation of the internet, the practice of filming the act and posting online videos of it is on the increase worldwide. While there are no official numbers, the London Underground is now[when?] running an advertising campaign against “tube surfing”. The advertisements now at most underground stations show a female figure with one arm and the caption “she was lucky” next to it.
In Germany, the practice was made popular on TV in the 1990s. There it was called “S-Bahn surfing”. Slowly, the former train surfing culture changed and integrated into the German graffiti culture. The phenomenon was forgotten until the millennium, but in 2005 it was rediscovered by a group from Frankfurt, Germany. The leader of the crew who calls himself “the Trainrider” famously surfed the InterCityExpress, the fastest train in Germany. An internet video claimed that he died a year later from an incurable form of leukemia, but later the Trainrider revealed in an interview [1][2] that this video was made by a fan and the story of his death was a hoax. S-Bahn surfing is a risky undertaking. Forty teenagers have died in Germany because of train surfing.[3]
An English teenager was killed after hitting a bridge while train surfing in November 2002.[4] A similar fate hit the Danish train surfer Martin Harris on 12 May 2007. After the incident, a campaign against train surfing was launched by two individuals.
On 24 January 2012 a 17 year old was killed while train surfing in Melbourne, Australia.[5]
[edit] References
- ^ Sat1 Akte 08
- ^ Video on YouTube (English subtitles)
- ^ "40 Jugendliche starben 2008 beim S-Bahn-Surfen", Stuttgarter Nachrichten vom 19. Mai 2010
- ^ Teenager died 'train surfing', BBC News, 8 May 2003
- ^ 'Kelly Slater of train surfing' killed, stuff.co.nz, 25 January 2012
[edit] External links
- South Africa's train-surfing problem BBC News
- Australian news report on a trainsurfing injury
- Trains surfing teen loses legs BBC News
- Train Surfing: Assessment of Risk Jinx Magazine
- Station 2: Trainsurfing article TV2 (résumé and screenshots from tv-doc, Danish language)
- Danish news article about the first official train surfing accident in Denmark
- Trainsurfing.dk campaign launched against train surfing after Denmark's first deadly accident
- The Trainrider The complete account of The Trainrider, Danish language
