Ridiculous TikTok challenges are back — and the high price of obtaining online infamy is again endangering the lives of young people.
Teens are now jumping in front of oncoming trucks in an attempt to make outrageous online content — but suffering fatal consequences.
Two Indonesian teens have died already due to the “angel of death” truck challenge, including one 18-year-old who was mowed down in the city of Tangerang, local news outlet Coconuts Jakarta reported.
The city’s official Twitter account posted a disturbing, semicensored video of the horrific incident, warning that the “reckless action of teenagers to stop the truck” caused a death.
As many as 14 minors who were suspected of participating in the same behavior were detained that day in the city, per Indonesia’s Sindo News.
The adolescents are suspected of being involved in a local TikTok challenge reportedly called “malaikat maut” (which loosely translates to “angel of death“), which is only successfully completed if the truck stops before striking the person.
The Tangerang tragedy comes just a day after two teenage boys sprung in front of a moving truck in Bandung, which hit one of the teens who is just 14, causing a fractured skull and shattered teeth.
The challenge, though, has been around since last year. In July, CNN Indonesia reported a fatality when a teenager attempted the challenge in Bekasi.
But this isn’t the first dangerous challenge promoted on TikTok. While viral trends tend to be funny, some can be deadly.
Florida’s Timothy Isaiah Hall, known to his more than 271,000 followers as @TimboTheRedneck, died in July 2021 while attempting a “fishtailing” truck stunt to impress his online audience. The 18-year-old passed away with more than 2.5 million “likes” to his credit.
“If I would have known about some of the dangerous things he was doing in his TikTok videos, as his mother, I would have stopped him and he’d still be here with me,” Tessie Hires, 38, told The Post at the time, as her voice trembled and tears streamed down her face. “My son loved TikTok, and always wanted to make the best videos for his fans — but he took his love for being popular on the app too far. And now he’s gone forever and my heart is broken. It will always be broken.”
Timbo is but one of the disturbing and growing number of digital influencers who’ve recently suffered severe “skull-breaker” injuries, dry-scoop-induced heart attacks, possible eating disorders and even deaths while executing reckless stunts in the name of social media superstardom via TikTok.
Among the first of the TikTok tragedies was Chloe Phillips, a 15-year-old from Oklahoma who died of a heart attack in August 2020 after taking on the Benadryl Challenge, in which the goal is to film oneself hallucinating from the medication.
Joshua Haileyesus, 12, was discovered unconscious in March 2021 by his twin brother on a bathroom floor of their Colorado home after attempting TikTok’s Blackout Challenge, in which teens hold their breath until passing out on video. Haileyesus was pronounced brain dead and died after 19 days on life support. A 10-year-old Pennsylvania girl, Nyla Anderson, died before year’s end by participating in the same fatal challenge.
A TikTok spokesperson previously told The Post that the “disturbing ‘challenge’ . . . long predates our platform and has never been a TikTok trend.”
“We remain vigilant in our commitment to user safety and would immediately remove related content if found,” they added.
