Viral video doesn’t show trick stunt on NYC subway platform; it was edited

A viral video with over 110,000 views on Twitter appears to show a man jumping from the subway tracks onto the platform moments before a train passes.

“There’s a new challenge y’all,” the tweet says. 

In responses and retweets, Twitter users are claiming this challenge would be deadly and questioned how the man was able to jump from the tracks onto the platform. 

THE QUESTION

Did the person in the video actually jump from the tracks to the platform moments before the train passed?

THE SOURCES

• New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority
• Video provided to VERIFY, courtesy of Eileen Clancy
• Google Maps

THE ANSWER

The video was taken from the 42nd Street/Port Authority Bus Terminal station, which VERIFY was able to confirm using Google Maps imagery. The street name can be seen on the wall in the background of the video, and the Port Authority sign is to the left of where the person is standing.

In an email to VERIFY, New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) also confirmed the location of the video, and said the person jumped onto the tracks just after the E train departed.

“The video is then reversed to make it appear as if the individual is jumping to the platform as a train arrives. This is because: trains run on the right-hand side of the station, while this video would make it appear to run on the left side. The conductor cab of the train is empty, which is only true in the rear car of the train,” the statement said. 

Eileen Clancy, a New York City resident, went to the subway station and filmed the exact location where the viral video was taken. Clancy’s video does show the train leaving the station, not arriving, as the viral video claimed to show.

Clancy said she spoke to a conductor who said the lights on the front of the train are always white and at the back they are always red. 

According to a release from the MTA published in February 2022, the MTA launched a Track Trespassing Task Force to study solutions aimed at reducing track intrusions, which have increased throughout the transit system by 20% between 2019 and 2021 and resulted in 68 fatalities last year.  

Trespassing on New York’s MTA tracks is a violation of MTA rules. The third rail on the track is also electric in order to power the trains, and could cause harm to anyone who comes into contact with the rail. 

“This action is, no matter the circumstances, a blatant violation of MTA rules, New York City Law, and common sense,” the MTA told VERIFY.