Forest Hills-71st Avenue subway station (Wikipedia)
Jan. 3, 2022 By Michael Dorgan
A man is dead after he leaped over a subway turnstile in Forest Hills early Sunday morning and snapped his neck upon landing.
Christopher De La Cruz, 28, went headfirst into the ground inside the Forest Hills-71st Avenue train station after attempting to jump a turnstile to evade the fare, police said.
When police arrived on the scene at around 6:45 a.m., De La Cruz was on the ground unconscious and unresponsive. EMS arrived and pronounced him dead at the station, cops said.
Dramatic video footage released by the New York Post captures De La Cruz making several failed attempts to get over the turnstile.
The video shows De La Cruz, who was from 88th Street in East Elmhurst, trying to crash through a turnstile in his first attempt but is blocked by the barrier.
De La Cruz, wearing a black hoody and a backpack, then stumbles backward before attempting to hop over a different turnstile. He makes several goes at jumping the barrier before eventually hoisting himself up with his hands against the barricades.
He then loses his balance sending him over the turnstile and landing headfirst on the concrete.
5 Comments
RIP. You gotta give it to him, he was persistent. Not very athletic though.
Expect law suit because of inaccessability!
Absolutely gutted. Concluding his bender in such a horrifying fashion is no way for any man to go. Wish he jumped a tad higher.
Wow! So awful.
Not crying for him. I know that entrance to the station and I have written numerous times to the MTA that at that entrance there needs to be tall turnstiles because there is no booth and it’s easy to jump over the turnstiles and avoid paying the fare. I’ve also written to them that at the 67th Ave station on the 67th Drive side, the emergency door should be locked because every day I see the school kids going through it and saw an old lady go through it the other day. She didn’t speak english (what a shock) and when I yelled at her (I pay for an unlimited card), she looked at me and held up her metro card. I guess she thought she could get back from wherever she was going the same way she got into this station. Same problem exists with the turnstiles at the S/B Rector Street station (back of the train). Just thought I’d mention it.
This would have been avoided if fare evasion was never decriminalized. How long before family files lawsuit against the city?