Dangerous ‘TikTok Challenges’ Leave 17-Year-Old Dead and 20-Year-Old with Permanent ‘Catastrophic Head Injuries

Two Pennsylvania teens have been charged after a 17-year-old was killed and a 20-year-old was left with permanent “catastrophic head injuries” while attempting dangerous “TikTok challenges” with their cars, authorities said.

Northampton County District Attorney Stephen Baratta announced the charges at a news conference on Tuesday, Sept. 23.

He said the county has been investigating “the dangerous and reckless use” of vehicles for these “stunt challenges.”

“It’s important for the public to understand that these challenges can have severe, real-world consequences, creating significant risk to participants and sometimes the bystanders as well,” he said.

In the first case, a 17-year-old boy was charged with involuntary manslaughter related to a suspected attempt at a social media challenge in June at the Freedom High School parking lot.

The teen is accused of using a rope to tie an upside-down folding table to the back of his vehicle and then pulling that table through the parking lot while a male friend, also 17, rode on top of the table.

The driver allegedly “recklessly operated his vehicle at significant speed such that it whipped the rider sitting on the table into another parked vehicle,” and the other boy died, Baratta said.

In a second incident, in March, a 19-year-old female was allegedly driving while a 20-year-old female friend stood on the trunk to “surf” on her moving car in a parking lot near William Penn Highway, Baratta said.

“Unfortunately, the friend was thrown from the moving vehicle and received catastrophic head injuries that will be permanent in nature,” he said.

The 19-year-old driver has been charged with aggravated assault, aggravated assault by vehicle, careless driving and persons hanging on a vehicle.

Baratta said that while the investigations in both cases remain open, officials have determined that neither of the drivers had “criminogenic thinking” and so, hopefully, they can be held accountable and then have their charges expunged.

“They were not planning to injure their victim,” he said of the accused. “However, in both incidents, the action of these drivers were so grossly negligent and reckless that it constituted criminal, culpable state of mind.”