Parents of a 15-year-old who died in June while subway surfing on the outside of a Metro are sharing their story to protect others.
“He was the center of our lives, and it was like the center of our lives just fell out,” Vaishali Honawar said.
Her son Jay Thirunarayanapuram would subway surf to impress his friends on social media, his parents said.
“[Jay] said, ‘I’ve heard of other kids dying, too, I know, but I know it’s not going to happen to me.’ So, he was overconfident. That was actually his undoing in the end,” said his father, Desikan Thirunarayanapuram.
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On Friday, a teen girl died the same way.
Jay’s parents say they plan to keep advocating for cameras on top of trains.
“We need to be proactive, and Metro is a member of this community. It needs to step up and it needs to make sure that no train leaves the platform with somebody riding outside a train,” Jay’s mom said. “It’s horrible to live with pain like this and to know what our child went through in those last moments.”
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Jay’s parents say they do not want any parents or children to go through this again.
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