After Teen Son Dies on Subway, Mom Finds His Phone Left Behind and Sees It as a Sign

Zackery Nazario always cherished Christmas in New York City — the snowfall, the Rockefeller Center tree, and the excitement of unwrapping presents.

But since his death more than two years ago while attempting to “subway surf,” the holiday season has been filled with sorrow, says his mother, Norma Nazario.

“Last year was harder than this year as I learned how to cope,” she tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue.

On Feb. 20, 2023, Zackery, 15, a history enthusiast with dreams of joining the Marines, boarded the J line with his girlfriend, according to family members. The two entered through unlocked train doors, walked between the cars, and climbed on top of the moving train.

As the train crossed the Williamsburg Bridge, Zackery was struck in the head by a beam. He fell between the cars and was fatally struck. His girlfriend witnessed the incident.

Norma, 54, says she came to understand too late the influence that social media had on her son — particularly content promoting the dangerous and deadly trend of subway surfing, which has surged in popularity in recent years.

She originally gave Zackery a cellphone so he could stay in touch during after-school activities. It began with Snapchat filters. Then he asked if he could download Instagram.

“I thought that social media was just good to communicate,” she says. But he soon became, as she describes, “addicted” to Instagram and TikTok — the latter of which she didn’t even know he had downloaded until after his death.

“He wasn’t letting go of the phone,” she recalls.

She believes subway surfing videos surfaced on Zackery’s feeds via Instagram and TikTok algorithms — despite the platforms’ policies that prohibit such content.

Shockingly, Zackery’s phone was found undamaged at the site of his death.

“I felt like that was a sign for me,” Norma says — as if her son was telling her: “Eventually, you’re going to open it, you’re going to see what I did and maybe try to put a stop to it.”

Major U.S. cities have faced subway surfing incidents, though on a smaller scale than New York.

San Francisco reported two fatalities in 2024, according to Bay Area Rapid Transit. In Washington, D.C., the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority confirmed two deaths since 2023. Chicago officials called the phenomenon “extremely rare,” with only a few incidents annually out of millions of train trips.

New York City has seen a more dire pattern. From 2018 to 2022, five people died from subway surfing. That number doubled in 2023, followed by six deaths in 2024 and three so far in 2025.

Many of those involved were juveniles or young adults, and hundreds have been arrested.

In September 2023, the city launched its “Ride Inside, Stay Alive” campaign to raise awareness. By 2024, authorities expanded efforts using 911 call data to deploy drones and special police teams in areas with high subway surfing complaints.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) declined to comment to PEOPLE. However, the agency is working on rolling out open-gangway trains to deter climbing and has introduced laser and infrared sensors to detect unauthorized track access. In collaboration with social media platforms, the MTA also flagged and removed more than 11,000 subway surfing-related posts.

Norma has decided to take matters into her own hands. On the anniversary of Zackery’s death, she filed a lawsuit against Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, TikTok and its parent company ByteDance, along with the MTA.

In court filings, she alleges Zackery was “targeted, goaded and encouraged” to try subway surfing. The companies have denied those claims. While the complaint against the MTA was dismissed, the case against the social media firms remains active.

Her attorney, Matthew Bergman of the Social Media Victims Law Center, argues that Zackery’s death was not a random tragedy.

“It was a direct and foreseeable result of the programming and design decisions that Instagram and TikTok made to prioritize engagement over safety,” he says.

“Teenagers make bad decisions,” Bergman adds. “They don’t deserve to die from them.”

Jean Twenge, psychology professor at San Diego State University and author of 10 Rules for Raising Kids in a High-Tech World, says adolescents are neurologically wired for risk-taking, especially when combined with social media’s influence.

“There’s the desire to show off to friends,” she explains. “But now in the age of social media, it’s kind of next-level… what people are doing and where they get their ideas about what risky thing would be fun and cool to do.”

She advises parents to delay smartphone use until teens reach driving age or demonstrate independent mobility. For social media, she recommends waiting until at least age 16.

Despite legal protections under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a Manhattan Supreme Court judge ruled on June 27 that Norma’s claims of negligence, product liability, and wrongful death can move forward. The court rejected arguments for immunity under Section 230 and the First Amendment.

The judge found that Norma had plausibly alleged that the social media companies specifically directed harmful content toward Zackery based on his age.

“Her son was barely buried when she started doing this,” Bergman says. “The hopeful side of me says, ‘Maybe we would’ve had more than six fatalities if we hadn’t encouraged this.’ The sad part of me says, ‘Look how this viral challenge is still going on. They could stop this, and they’re not.’”

Norma accepted Zackery’s high school diploma on June 23 — a moment filled with emotion, but also determination.

“I’m not going to stop,” she says, “until it stops forever.”