Teen speaks out against car surfing

Elon Glickman uses his experience to warn parents and peers about the dangers of street surfing. Elon lost his friend Adir Vered, seen in the photo Elon is holding, a year ago. (John McCoy/L.A. Daily News)

The memory of that night still brings him heartache, but he speaks through the pain anyway.

"My name is Elon Glickman, and my best friend is dead," the blue-eyed teenager tells an auditorium filled with parents one night last month.

"He died in a car accident. He was at my house a few hours before and then I never saw him again."

For Elon, 17, the speech he gives to parents and to students is a matter of life and death. It is important that others hear it, because thousands of teenagers like him and his friend Adir Vered make bad decisions every day.

On Feb. 12, 2010, Adir was riding in a moving car with his head stuck out the open passenger window when it crashed into a parked car on a Northridge street. Adir, who wasn't wearing a seatbelt, was killed in the impact.

No drugs or alcohol were involved, police said.

But the incident left those who knew Adir at a loss. This was the lover of life, the boy with the easy smile.

"After he passed away, I was lost," Elon said. "I felt hopeless and depressed. I thought, what could I do?"

Last month, near the one-year anniversary of Adir's death, Elon spoke to a group of parents at New Community Jewish High School in West Hills, where he attends, and where he met Adir.

Elon wasn't there when Adir died, but he knows what his friends were up to that night.

He's done it too.

He's ridden in the passenger seat without a seatbelt, then

opened the door as the car sped down the road. And he's hoisted himself up so that his feet dangled just above the pavement as the driver accelerates, swerves and flips U-turns.

It's a variation of street or car surfing.

Last year, an 18-year-old Malibu High School student was filmed climbing atop a vehicle as it sped down Pacific Coast Highway.

"I coach football, and boys are all about testosterone and thinking they are invincible," said Sgt. Nick Titiriga, from the LAPD's Valley Traffic division.

Adir's death brought back painful memories when Titiriga heard of the accident. In a similar accident, Titiriga's own son was seriously injured while hanging out the open window of a moving car. The car hit a telephone pole.

"That was the worst moment of my life," Titiriga said, adding that movies and shows such as "Jackass" only encourage young men to take on such dangerous stunts.

"Car surfing is not as common around (the Valley), but we hear about it through word of mouth," he said.

In reality, Elon said, it is much more popular than most people, especially parents, think.

While crashes are the leading cause of death for U.S. teens, overall accidents involving youths have dropped.

Still, federal officials have spotted an upward trend in car surfing.

Since 1990, nearly 100 teens died or were seriously injured as a result of the thrill-seeking activity, which is defined as riding on the exterior of a moving vehicle.

Information about car surfing injuries and deaths was gathered by researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Division of Unintentional Injury Prevention. Researchers reviewed newspaper reports from 1990 through 2008. Most of the incidents occurred in the South and Midwest.

"Their findings answer common questions about this dangerous phenomenon, which appears to be most popular among young people, especially teenage males," according to the CDC.

"I think it's a miracle every single day that I didn't die," Elon says, which is why he would like to take his speech to more schools.

"It's powerful for parents to hear from a 'good kid' that parents need to actively parent their children and constantly remind them to think before they act," said Ellen Howard, principal at New Community Jewish High School.

Elon's mother, Lori Glickman, said the talks have helped her son deal with the loss of his friend, but also exposed a truth: She was sickened with fear when she discovered that Elon had street surfed, too.

"My heart was in my stomach," she said. "They were all good boys. When he told me he was doing this stuff, I almost threw up."

To most who met him, Adir was fun-loving, Lori Glickman said.

"Unfortunately for him, Elon is no stranger to loss," said Glickman, who raised Elon and his younger sister after her husband died when Elon was 2.

"When he lost Adir, it was important for him to get the message out there to other kids," she said. "In a blink of an eye, Elon's life change in a profound way."

Elon says he hopes other schools will contact him so that he can spread the message of how it's important for parents to understand that even good kids do dumb things.

"It's still painful," Elon says. "Every time after I speak, I don't want to do it again. But I just know I have to."

The memory of that night still brings him heartache, but he speaks through the pain anyway.

Julianne Hough Kim Smith Virginie Ledoyen Marika Dominczyk America Ferrera