Despite the very obvious dangers of TikTok challenges, teens continue to participate in them. At some point, you have to wonder if it goes beyond teenage shenanigans and becomes reckless behavior that could lead to someone dying. Teens participating in the “ding, dong, ditch” or “door knock” challenges have been killed. And for what — a video that people may or may not see? Recently a New York City teen fell down a bridge shaft while participating in a TikTok challenge, police say. Thankfully, the teen boy survived, but thus far it is unknown what kind of long-term damage the fall might have done.
First responders were called to the Queensboro Bridge shortly before 9 p.m. on February 16, 2026, WABC reported. Authorities received word that someone had fallen down a shaft. When they arrived, officers from the New York Police Department and Fire Department of New York were unsure what tower of the bridge the teen was on. They began searching, and eventually a clue tipped them off to his location.
“Once I saw the shoe and the blood, I just relayed that information to the rest of the members on the scene so we could all get the ball rolling on what we were going to use to retrieve this victim once we laid eyes on him,” firefighter Khalid Lee said, per WABC. “He was just mumbling from the severe trauma that he experienced.”
According to authorities, the 16-year-old boy had scaled the bridge with friends participating in a TikTok challenge, but his friends abandoned him when he fell, leaving him alone to be rescued. The teen fell 50 feet down a 3-by-3-foot bridge shaft.
“This was a confined-space operation, which is a very difficult, time-consuming, manpower-intensive operation,” FDNY Deputy Chief Nicholas Corrado said during a media briefing. “It involved high-angle equipment, ropes. We have to monitor the air and create high points.”
The rescue required 75 first responders and 10 pieces of equipment, Corrado said. After being rescued, the teen, who has not been named, was taken to New York Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell, the New York Post reported. Per police, he was listed in critical but stable condition.
He is from Lynbrook in Nassau County, according to the newspaper. A young woman who knows the teen learned about the incident after seeing video footage on WhatsApp, WABC reported.
“I texted them anonymously. I didn’t know really what to do either because I wasn’t there. But I, you know, these kids are panicking. And I was like, if there’s someone in critical danger, I need to help,” she explained.
She hopes other teens will learn from this terrifying experience. “Call for help for their friends and stay with them and don’t take the course of action that they did,” she told the outlet. Those who know the teen are praying for his recovery, the young woman said.
“The adrenaline that was felt, it was, it was moving, but this is what we train for,” firefighter Lee told CBS News New York. Coincidentally, only 30 minutes before receiving the call firefighters were training on how to rescue someone from a hole, the outlet reported.
CBS News New York spoke with the boy’s father via phone. He said his son was medicated because of some head injuries, but his condition was improving.
