The mother of a Manhattan teen who died while “surfing” on the New York City subway last year is suing the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, TikTok and Instagram’s parent company Meta for their role in her son’s untimely death. filed a lawsuit.
“Social media and the MTA, my son failed” Norma Nazario
Said WABC TV.
Three months after an incident,
15 year old boy dies Another 15-year-old, Zachary Nazario, suffered a similar tragedy when he boarded a New York City subway car while illegally surfing on a Brooklyn train.
On February 20, 2023, Nazario was crossing the Williamsburg Bridge on a train when a low beam hit him in the head. Nazario fell onto the railroad tracks below and was run over.
In recent years, the illegal activity of subway surfing has become popular among young people. Reported incidents jumped from 206 in 2021 to 928 in 2022. This trend continued last year, claiming the lives of Zachary and at least four others. WNBC TV
shown Between January and June 2023 alone, the MTA recorded more than 450 subway surfing incidents.
Already in 2024, there have been multiple fatalities related to subway surfing attempts.
“Subway surfing kills people. Another innocent life has been lost,” New York City Transit Authority President Richard Davey said after a teenager died after riding off a train in Brooklyn last month. That shouldn’t happen,” he repeated.
report New York Times.
Norma Nazario’s lawsuit, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court on the anniversary of her son’s death, says the MTA did not install adequate barriers to prevent young people from riding the trains, “creating a serious and foreseeable risk of harm.” “I let him do it.”
report New York Post. The complaint also alleged that there was an apparent flaw in the system that caused the train’s doors to not lock.
The lawsuit further alleges that the social media company bears some responsibility for Zachary’s death, allegedly “encouraging” him to attempt the stunt by promoting videos of others performing the feat. ing.
The suit says TikTok and Instagram are liable for “targeting, inciting, and encouraging” Zachary to subway surf under a state law that prohibits “unreasonably dangerous” designs in products.
The temptation is said to have been in the form of encouraging Zachary to watch a video about the “Subway Surfing Challenge” before Zachary died trying to surf the subway.
“What happened to Zachary was not an accident or coincidence,” Matthew Bergman, co-founder of the Social Media Victims Law Center and legal representative for the Nazario family, told the Post. “This was a predictable result of social media companies’ deliberate decisions to design their products so that young people become addicted to them.
So-called surfers and witnesses routinely post videos of dangerous stunts on social media.
After Zachary’s death, MTA Chairman and CEO Jano Lieber said his organization had previously pressured social media companies to platform videos showcasing subway surfing, but still He said he intends to redouble such efforts.
report City.
“We’re going to renew it again. This is something no one wants to see,” Lieber said. “We have to keep trying because 15-year-olds are heartbroken.”
new york mayor eric adams
Raised awareness about Zachary’s fate and the dangers of subway surfing In June 2023, he emphasized, “Social media must be socially responsible. Subway surfing kills people. We all need to join together to end this dangerous menace.”
City and state officials
Death toll from subway surfing — Survive while riding” campaign in September to warn minors about the dangers of ignoring laws and customs in the pursuit of train-related thrills, installing warning signs throughout transit and broadcasting similar warnings. .
In addition to the alerts, police have reportedly deployed after-school patrols to subway lines identified as high-risk for subway surfing. The Times said patrols have thwarted about 11 attempts a month so far.
Norma Nazario is seeking unspecified damages from the MTA and social media companies, telling the Post: “They could give me a billion dollars and I’m not going to stop.” Told.
“I will not stop until the MTA and social media companies start taking responsibility and stop killing children,” Nazario added.
It appears that the Nazario family and their legal representatives are not passing all the blame for this tragedy.
“Zachary bears some of the blame,” Bergman told WABC. “No one is saying there was no common fault here, but what we are saying is that this didn’t have to happen.”
The MTA did not respond to The Post’s request for comment, but New York City Transit Authority President Richard Davey said in a statement: “As we have said many times, don’t climb on top of trains. It’s a good thing. We want parents to warn their children and friends to stay in their cars and avoid tragedy.”
WABC reported that TikTok and Instagram have not yet commented on the lawsuit.
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