Mom of NYC teen killed subway surfing plans to sue MTA

[WestFarms36]

By 

Kevin Sheehan,

Natalie O'Neill and

Jack Morphet

March 3, 2023 1:17pm 

Link: https://nypost.com/2023/03/03/mom-of-nyc-teen-killed-subway-surfing-plans-to-sue-mta/

The mother of a 15-year-old Manhattan boy killed “subway surfing” on the Williamsburg Bridge plans to sue the MTA for failing to block off empty parts of the train used for the daredevil stunt, she told The Post.

Norma Nazario of Alphabet City said she reviewed footage on her late son Zackery’s phone and that it showed nothing prevented him from climbing onto the roof of the J train, where he eventually hit his head and died Monday.

“[The videos] show he has easy access. No alarms, no security, no cameras, no anything!” Nazario said ahead of her son’s wake Thursday evening.  

“He was able to access anything in the trains, the empty cabins, the train stations, nobody [was]  looking. I was so surprised.”

The grieving mother said transportation honchos have known for a decade that thrill-seeking teens ride on the outside of trains — but have made no apparent effort to restrict access to those areas.

“Don’t get me wrong, my son, he had no business doing what he did. But they knew 10 years ago kids did this so easily,” she said. “My son died. When are they going to do something?”

She added, “Obviously I am planning to sue.”

In a statement to The Post Friday night, the MTA said, “Riding outside subway cars is dangerous and against the rules, and we won’t comment on pending litigation.”

Nazario said she wants to discuss possible subway-surfing prevention steps with Mayor Eric Adams but didn’t elaborate.

Zackery was riding on the roof of a northbound J train across the bridge with his girlfriend when he slammed his head on a metal beam at 6:45 p.m. and fell beneath the train, according to police.

He apparently had turned his head back to look at his girlfriend when he was struck and fell.

Nazario cremated Zackery’s remains Friday and said she planned to move his ashes to her family’s apartment.

“I’m going to bring his ashes home. I want my son in his room one way or another,” she said.

Subway surfing incidents increased 560% between January and May last year, MTA data show — with 449 incidents compared to just 68 during the same period in 2021.

[VIP]

Don’t worry, in 4-5 more years we’ll have open gangway cars so surfin the top of a train will not be so accessible… 

[Jdog14]

12 hours ago, VIP said:

Don’t worry, in 4-5 more years we’ll have open gangway cars so surfin the top of a train will not be so accessible… 

 

Until you realize that we will have over 3000 subway cars without the gangways...

[B35 via Church]

Quote

“Don’t get me wrong, my son, he had no business doing what he did. But they knew 10 years ago kids did this so easily,” she said. “My son died. When are they going to do something?”

She added, “Obviously I am planning to sue.”

In a statement to The Post Friday night, the MTA said, “Riding outside subway cars is dangerous and against the rules, and we won’t comment on pending litigation.”

Nazario said she wants to discuss possible subway-surfing prevention steps with Mayor Eric Adams but didn’t elaborate.

She's doing the irresponsible parent victim thing wrong here.....

You either commence with the lawsuit & take zero responsibility in any of this, or you admit the boy had no business train surfing, in your further wanting to discuss subway surfing prevention measures....

 

[VIP]

2 hours ago, Jdog14 said:

 

Until you realize that we will have over 3000 subway cars without the gangways...

Wow I never knew we had 3000+ subway cars. I thought we only had 500 wow…

[Via Garibaldi 8]

4 hours ago, B35 via Church said:

She's doing the irresponsible parent victim thing wrong here.....

You either commence with the lawsuit & take zero responsibility in any of this, or you admit the boy had no business train surfing, in your further wanting to discuss subway surfing prevention measures....

 

This was bound to happen sooner or later, that is someone suing for their kid's reckless behavior. I can picture the  settling out of court to put this to rest quietly.  Outside of that, I'm not sure what else they're supposed to do.  There was a hearing (IIRC) that Janno Lieber recently attended, where he was asked what the  planned to do about subway surfing.  

[B35 via Church]

1 minute ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

This was bound to happen sooner or later, that is someone suing for their kid's reckless behavior. I can picture the  settling out of court to put this to rest quietly.  Outside of that, I'm not sure what else they're supposed to do.  There was a hearing (IIRC) that Janno Lieber recently attended, where he was asked what the  planned to do about subway surfing.  

You can only do but so much of that whole, protecting people from themselves bit..... My thing though is, suing big corporations/agencies to some of these people is akin to playing the lotto.... Of course no one ever comes out & admits it's about a payday, but this feigning like you care about other people's children (in this case) almost as, or just as much as you did yours, and/or (potentially) getting paid, is deceitful, disingenuous, & disgusting....

As curt as this will come across, a monetary lawsuit isn't going to make her whole here, because the kid is dead (and did so, doing something he had no business doing - which she, herself admitted)... What got me is the "Obviously" when she expressed planning on suing the MTA.... That to me, was a "dead" giveaway as to wanting a payday, more than this BS about wanting to discuss "subway-surfing prevention steps" with this fool of a mayor we have in this city....

"Nazario said she wants to discuss possible subway-surfing prevention steps with Mayor Eric Adams but didn’t elaborate."

Lol.... Of course she didn't elaborate, because she only said that BS to thwart potential public perception about her only wanting money from a lawsuit....

[B35 via Church]

Oh, and ole girl has a Go Fund Me also..... $19,000 strong before she decided to close it for further donations

https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-send-zackery-off

Yes, help "send Zackery off"

Wonder how that "Obvious" lawsuit will end up panning out.....

[R32 3838]

“[The videos] show he has easy access. No alarms, no security, no cameras, no anything!”

“He was able to access anything in the trains, the empty cabins, the train stations, nobody [was]  looking. I was so surprised.”

“Don’t get me wrong, my son, he had no business doing what he did. But they knew 10 years ago kids did this so easily,” she said. “My son died. When are they going to do something?”

 

LMFAO

 

If they did something, Then she would have said it was racial profiling (I know you have a good chunk of a**hole cops) but there are ones who actually do their job would have been thrown to the wolves.

 

And They used to go after people for doing shit like this. But because of dumb politicians being laxed on the law, This has gotten much worse than before.

 

I hate these types of parents with a passion. When they do something stupid like this beat their ass. I'm not for beatings but when teens do something as stupid as this, then they need a good ass beating.

 

When are parents going to take accountability for their bastards? too many "oh he was a good boy", "he didn't do nuffin", "My child couldn't do such a thing" and etc. they either end up dead or in prison.

 

 

Edited March 6, 2023 by R32 3838

[NewFlyer 230]

What I realized in todays world is that it is so much easier to point the finger at someone else than to take accountability for one’s own actions. 
I am not shocked that a mom who did a poor job raising her child is pointing the finger at the MTA for not making sure that her child did not surf the train. He shouldn’t have been up there in the first place, and I know this will come off a bit crass, but little man got what he deserved. Sad that another youngster got taken out due to poor choices but this is a perfect example of why good parenting is important. 
However what I want to know is why don’t a lot of parents nowadays check up on their kids and see where they are at? You hear stories of teenagers getting into altercations and being killed at ungodly hours of the morning but then the parents say “my child was a good kid”. Why should it be left up to the schools, the MTA and etc to raise your kids when that is your job as a parent. That’s why I say not everyone should have a child.  

12 hours ago, R32 3838 said:

When are parents going to take accountability for their bastards? too many "oh he was a good boy", "he didn't do nuffin", "My child couldn't do such a thing" and etc. they either end up dead or in prison.

 

 

I share the same sentiment! That’s why we need responsible and involved men in the household raising these young kids. I’m not saying that all fatherless kids act out but with a lot of tragedy I hear surrounding the youth there is a repeated pattern of fatherlessness and poor parenting going on. 

[ABCDEFGJLMNQRSSSWZ]

7 hours ago, NewFlyer 230 said:

What I realized in todays world is that it is so much easier to point the finger at someone else than to take accountability for one’s own actions. 
I am not shocked that a mom who did a poor job raising her child is pointing the finger at the MTA for not making sure that her child did not surf the train. He shouldn’t have been up there in the first place, and I know this will come off a bit crass, but little man got what he deserved. Sad that another youngster got taken out due to poor choices but this is a perfect example of why good parenting is important. 
However what I want to know is why don’t a lot of parents nowadays check up on their kids and see where they are at? You hear stories of teenagers getting into altercations and being killed at ungodly hours of the morning but then the parents say “my child was a good kid”. Why should it be left up to the schools, the MTA and etc to raise your kids when that is your job as a parent. That’s why I say not everyone should have a child.  

I share the same sentiment! That’s why we need responsible and involved men in the household raising these young kids. I’m not saying that all fatherless kids act out but with a lot of tragedy I hear surrounding the youth there is a repeated pattern of fatherlessness and poor parenting going on. 

I tend to agree with you overall but I don't necessarily think we can just assume the mom did a bad job at raising him, but moreso conclude something overall was probably wrong in the environment he grew up in; it could be a consequence of bad parenting, bad friends, other bad adults in his life, or a combination. It's entirely possible that his mom was really just lazy or bad, but maybe she did the best she could given the circumstances and wasn't able to overcome other factors pushing him towards this.

Lack of fathers is also a really sad issue I don't think gets enough attention; the stats around it tend to be insane and speak for themselves.

There are plenty of people with good and engaged parents who end up having extreme issues for other reasons.

Edited March 6, 2023 by ABCDEFGJLMNQRSSSWZ

[Trainmaster5]

On 3/4/2023 at 5:35 PM, B35 via Church said:

Oh, and ole girl has a Go Fund Me also..... $19,000 strong before she decided to close it for further donations

https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-send-zackery-off

Yes, help "send Zackery off"

Wonder how that "Obvious" lawsuit will end up panning out.....

Damn, the subway system has operated for almost 120 years with all types of equipment. Some dumb ass does something stupid and someone's supposed to feel sorry for him and mom ? I've been around for a long time but I don't recall someone doing something this stupid with people seemingly defending this type of action. Must be a generational thing I guess. My opinion. Carry on.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

3 hours ago, ABCDEFGJLMNQRSSSWZ said:

I tend to agree with you overall but I don't necessarily think we can just assume the mom did a bad job at raising him, but moreso conclude something overall was probably wrong in the environment he grew up in; it could be a consequence of bad parenting, bad friends, other bad adults in his life, or a combination. It's entirely possible that his mom was really just lazy or bad, but maybe she did the best she could given the circumstances and wasn't able to overcome other factors pushing him towards this.

Lack of fathers is also a really sad issue I don't think gets enough attention; the stats around it tend to be insane and speak for themselves.

There are plenty of people with good and engaged parents who end up having extreme issues for other reasons.

There doesn't have to be anything wrong in a kid's environment for them to do what he was doing. Young people think they're invincible.  Everybody has their limits on what they find tolerable and not tolerable. The fact that he was up there with his girlfriend tells me he was doing something he enjoyed, as dangerous and crazy as it was and he didn't think anything would happen, which is why he turned to talk to her in the first place.

[ABCDEFGJLMNQRSSSWZ]

18 minutes ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

There doesn't have to be anything wrong in a kid's environment for them to do what he was doing. Young people think they're invincible.  Everybody has their limits on what they find tolerable and not tolerable. The fact that he was up there with his girlfriend tells me he was doing something he enjoyed, as dangerous and crazy as it was and he didn't think anything would happen, which is why he turned to talk to her in the first place.

Biologically, yes, teens are risk takers; I myself am a teen so I understand. However, taking an extreme risk with a high chance of ending your life is not normal; this makes me think he really wasn’t aware of the dangers of subway surfing and just heard about other kids casually doing it in his school or smtg.

By 14/15/16, people should have a basic sense of reason telling them things like Subway Surfing could kill you, and if they don’t that makes me think something is wrong.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

6 minutes ago, ABCDEFGJLMNQRSSSWZ said:

Biologically, yes, teens are risk takers; I myself am a teen so I understand. However, taking an extreme risk with a high chance of ending your life is not normal; this makes me think he really wasn’t aware of the dangers of subway surfing and just heard about other kids casually doing it in his school or smtg.

By 14/15/16, people should have a basic sense of reason telling them things like Subway Surfing could kill you, and if they don’t that makes me think something is wrong.

Yeah to you, but everyone's sense of what is risky and what isn't is quite different.  Some people by nature are dare devils or "adventure seekers".

[ABCDEFGJLMNQRSSSWZ]

12 minutes ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

Yeah to you, but everyone's sense of what is risky and what isn't is quite different.  Some people by nature are dare devils or "adventure seekers".

How much of this stuff is biological vs environmental gets into a very deep discussion, and I will concede that compared to many, I am more on the “cautious” side for my age.

However, I do see extreme discrepancies in the lifestyles and activities of teens in NYC who go to more “privileged” specialized high schools vs some of the worst high schools in rough parts of the city.

At my high school, stuff like drug addictions, bingo drinking, teen pregnancy, and toxic relationships certainly exist, but far more seldom than some of these other high schools where you can literally smell Marijuana just by being near the building. I don’t blame those teens; many were dealt a bad hand between poverty, single-family households, and disengaged parents, but if we as a society placed more emphasis on giving teens the quality of support and nuture I’ve been fortunate to receive in my life (both through home and school), I guarantee you’d see a decline in these sorts of issues.

You can look at the data in a map; teenage deaths, teen pregnancy, and underaged crime correlates strongly with poverty. While there’s not data to prove it, I would imagine the same is true of people dying from subway surfing.

Anyways don’t mean to derail the entire thread. Have a pretty good night!

[Via Garibaldi 8]

17 minutes ago, ABCDEFGJLMNQRSSSWZ said:

How much of this stuff is biological vs environmental gets into a very deep discussion, and I will concede that compared to many, I am more on the “cautious” side for my age.

However, I do see extreme discrepancies in the lifestyles and activities of teens in NYC who go to more “privileged” specialized high schools vs some of the worst high schools in rough parts of the city.

At my high school, stuff like drug addictions, bingo drinking, teen pregnancy, and toxic relationships certainly exist, but far more seldom than some of these other high schools where you can literally smell Marijuana just by being near the building. I don’t blame those teens; many were dealt a bad hand between poverty, single-family households, and disengaged parents, but if we as a society placed more emphasis on giving teens the quality of support and nuture I’ve been fortunate to receive in my life (both through home and school), I guarantee you’d see a decline in these sorts of issues.

You can look at the data in a map; teenage deaths, teen pregnancy, and underaged crime correlates strongly with poverty. While there’s not data to prove it, I would imagine the same is true of people dying from subway surfing.

Anyways don’t mean to derail the entire thread. Have a pretty good night!

There is some truth to what you stated, but some of it is just good old peer pressure, or kids doing whatever they think is cool.  I can say from personal experience with the group I hung out with as a teen, we had some people that were rational and others that took things to the extreme. 

[B35 via Church]

I suppose there's a conversation to be had with what you guys have spoken about here since my last post, but my thing with this here is (in so many words), I abhor this apparent subculture (or whatever you want to call it) of parents profiting off of their children's death...

Not to say that she is, but that send Zachary off BS came off to me as very sociopathic.... Even if you're going to do the whole gofundme bit, surely you can come up with a more heartfelt (and/or, less lazy) title than that....

Edited March 7, 2023 by B35 via Church

[RTOMan]

On 3/6/2023 at 10:32 PM, Trainmaster5 said:

Damn, the subway system has operated for almost 120 years with all types of equipment. Some dumb ass does something stupid and someone's supposed to feel sorry for him and mom ? I've been around for a long time but I don't recall someone doing something this stupid with people seemingly defending this type of action. Must be a generational thing I guess. My opinion. Carry on.

True words..

Then you got  some of these kiddie buffs in these groups online co-signing this reckless behavior...

Until it becomes one of them...

I seen it a lot not as much now because the admins of these groups aren't letting those dumb posts stay...

As for momma i got nothing to say but good luck with that lawsuit ya money grabber because she's about the money nothing more nothing less..

So what there's signs and messages all over saying DO NOT DO THIS..

[RTOMan]

On 3/6/2023 at 11:56 PM, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

There is some truth to what you stated, but some of it is just good old peer pressure, or kids doing whatever they think is cool.  I can say from personal experience with the group I hung out with as a teen, we had some people that were rational and others that took things to the extreme. 

Peer pressure is what got that Kid killed on the J line earlier this year...

[ABCDEFGJLMNQRSSSWZ]

On 3/6/2023 at 11:56 PM, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

There is some truth to what you stated, but some of it is just good old peer pressure, or kids doing whatever they think is cool.  I can say from personal experience with the group I hung out with as a teen, we had some people that were rational and others that took things to the extreme. 

Teaching kids how to manage peer pressure is something I think schools and parents often don't do a very good job of; it's particularly difficult because teens tend to rebel against authority so if presented in the wrong way, it may just encourage kids more. The best way is generally to empower them as individuals. with unique identities, hobbies, and personalities because when that's accepted, it also becomes less of a rat race to just do the most sensational thing.

Managing peer pressure is a very important skill to have, both from a safety and general happiness perspective imo.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

2 minutes ago, ABCDEFGJLMNQRSSSWZ said:

Teaching kids how to manage peer pressure is something I think schools and parents often don't do a very good job of; it's particularly difficult because teens tend to rebel against authority so if presented in the wrong way, it may just encourage kids more. The best way is generally to empower them as individuals. with unique identities, hobbies, and personalities because when that's accepted, it also becomes less of a rat race to just do the most sensational thing.

Managing peer pressure is a very important skill to have, both from a safety and general happiness perspective imo.

Unfortunately, kids of today are more followers than leaders, which is another problem.  I never felt pressured to do anything by my friends.  We all did what we did by choice.