Normo Nazario: NYC mother sues MTA, TikTok and Meta after teen son's death in 'Subway Surfing' challenge
Warning: This article contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some, readers’ discretion advised.
MANHATTAN, NEW YORK: The lawsuit filed by Normo Nazario, mother of a 15-year-old boy who tragically lost his life while participating in the "Subway Surfing Challenge" targets both the city’s transit authority and social media platforms responsible for promoting the dangerous trend.
She alleges that her son was influenced by viral videos of the challenge, ultimately leading him to attempt climbing onto a moving subway car as per Law&Crime.
In the incident involving Zackery Nazario, he accessed an unlocked train door, traversed between moving cars, and ascended to the roof of a Brooklyn-bound J train on February 20, 2023.
He was struck by a beam on the Williamsburg Bridge while the train was crossing the East River, causing him to fall between cars onto the tracks where he was struck by another train.
What did the mother Normo Nazario claim in lawsuit?
The teen's mother, Norma Nazario, said in the lawsuit that social media and the MTA failed her son.
She believed social media encourages young Americans to use it excessively. The lawsuit claims social media companies intentionally make addictive content to keep users engaged.
“At best, the social media defendants make these engineered addiction-by-design programming decisions to push young Americans into maximizing their engagement with the social media products by any means necessary.”
It also accuses the MTA of not doing enough to stop young people from climbing on trains.
Zackery got his first cellphone at 12 and quickly became addicted to TikTok and Instagram. He watched videos about dangerous challenges, like 'Subway Surfing,' which the lawsuit says he shouldn't have seen.
TikTok and Instagram kept showing Zackery dangerous videos, knowing he was only 15. They wanted him to try those challenges to make money.
“TikTok and Instagram began pushing to 15-year-old Zackery a continuous stream of dangerous challenge videos, Instagram was aware that Zackery was seeing content that promoted the dangerous activity, and wanted to profit off of him trying it for himself.”
Thousands of dangerous videos were on Zackery's accounts before he died, just to keep him interested.
What were the steps taken after teen died Subway Surfing challenge?
Matthew P Bergman, the lawyer representing the Nazario family, said that Zackery also had some responsibility for what happened. He believes that while Zackery shared some blame, the tragedy could have been prevented.
NYC Transit President Richard Davey warned people not to climb on trains because it's dangerous. He urged parents to tell their children and friends to avoid risky behavior.
TikTok and Meta didn't respond immediately to requests for comments.
TikTok previously stated that safety comes first and they have many professionals working to remove harmful content.
TikTok claimed, “More than 40,000 safety professionals are dedicated to keeping our community safe and work diligently to remove harmful content when found.”
