A TikTok climbing stunt on New York City’s Queensboro Bridge left a 16-year-old boy hypothermic, injured, and abandoned in a pitch-black shaft for hours. His survival, authorities say, is a miracle.

On a cold February night in New York City, a group of teenagers from Long Island arrived at the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge with a plan: climb the iconic span, film the whole thing, and post it to TikTok. What unfolded instead was a near-tragedy that’s now sparking outrage across the country — not just because of the reckless stunt, but because of what the boy’s companions allegedly did when it all went wrong.
The Climb That Changed Everything
Just before 9 p.m. on February 16, 2026, the 16-year-old Lynbrook resident descended a ladder into a narrow shaft hidden inside the bridge’s buttress on the Queens side of the span. The shaft — roughly three feet by three feet — was designed for maintenance access, not teenage adventurers chasing social media fame. He got stuck. Then he fell. And he kept falling — 50 feet down into the dark.
According to FDNY Deputy Chief Nicholas Corrado, the boy was trapped in the lower level of the bridge, screaming and incoherent when rescuers finally reached him. Firefighter Khalid Lee, who was part of the rescue team, described hearing the teen “just mumbling from severe trauma.” The rescue required 75 FDNY and EMS personnel and 10 specialized pieces of high-angle equipment, including ropes and pulley systems. Ironically, Corrado noted that crews had been training on exactly this type of confined-space rescue just 30 minutes before the 911 call came in.
Left Behind
What makes this story more than just a cautionary tale about reckless stunts is what allegedly happened after the boy fell.
According to his family, a Change.org petition with over 800 signatures, and statements from NYPD officials, the teens who were with him did not call for help. They reportedly recorded him as he screamed in pain and distress, then took his phone — leaving him with no way to call for help — and fled the scene. He lay trapped in that freezing shaft for what authorities estimate was more than seven hours before emergency crews reached him.
“Nobody deserves to be abandoned and left to die during the worst and most traumatic moment of their life,” the family’s petition reads. “After he fell, the people he was with recorded him as he screamed for help. Instead of helping him, they even took his phone and disposed of it.”
It was not a friend, or a passerby, or a 911 call from the group that triggered the rescue. It was an anonymous young woman who saw the videos circulating on WhatsApp, recognized the danger, and texted authorities. “I didn’t know really what to do either because I wasn’t there,” she told ABC7 News. “But if there’s someone in critical danger, I need to help.”
Chief Brian Paladino of the Lynbrook Police Department later confirmed that officers had to drive one of the other teens back to the bridge to identify the exact location where the boy had fallen. Without that, Paladino said, it’s unclear whether the victim would have been found in time.
The Rescue
When FDNY crews finally extracted the boy from the shaft, he was suffering from hypothermia and had sustained head injuries. He was rushed to New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell, initially listed in critical condition. Within days, his condition stabilized. His father, speaking to CBS News New York, said his son is medicated but improving.
His family described his survival as “nothing short of a miracle” on a GoFundMe page set up to help cover medical costs. The teen, they said, faces surgery and an extended period of rehabilitation.
Arrests and Accountability
Days after the incident, the NYPD confirmed two arrests. A 14-year-old was charged with reckless endangerment and criminal trespassing, while a 15-year-old was charged with criminal trespassing. The charges follow pressure from the victim’s family, friends, and a public petition demanding that those who allegedly abandoned him face legal consequences.
Video footage shared by the New York Post and others shows the group squeezing through access hatches on the bridge’s exterior, navigating narrow ledges and ladders, and entering the interior structure of the bridge. A “Caution: When Climbing Down the Ladder” sign is clearly visible in one of the images — a warning the teens appear to have ignored entirely.
A Pattern With Deadly Consequences
This isn’t the first time a dangerous social media trend has landed a young person in a hospital. Teens have been seriously injured or killed attempting viral bridge jumps, rooftop stunts, subway surfing challenges, and extreme parkour for clicks and views. But what sets this case apart is the alleged abandonment — the chilling moment when a group of teenagers allegedly chose their phones over their friend’s life.
Child safety advocates and parents across the country are now calling on TikTok, Instagram, and other social media platforms to do more to demonetize and remove content that glorifies trespassing on dangerous infrastructure. Some are also calling for stronger legal consequences for bystanders who fail to render aid in life-threatening situations.
For now, a 16-year-old boy is recovering from frostbite, head trauma, and a fall that should have killed him — while his community grapples with the question of how far kids will go for a viral moment, and what happens when the unthinkable becomes real.
His family’s message is simple: “His survival is nothing short of a miracle. Please, talk to your children.”