NYPD Chief of Transit Joseph Gulotta and Norma Nazario, the mother of a teen who lost his life while subway surfing, made a tearful plea on Wednesday to his family and children: Stop the deadly game now.

Subway surfing has become a dangerous fad among New York City youth; according to Chief Gulotta, the average age of a subway surfer is 14, but cops have found some as young as 10.

Gulotta and Nazario made their plea on Wednesday at One Police Plaza just days after the latest deadly subway surfing incident. On May 22, a 14-year-old boy died after falling from atop a J train as it traveled across the Williamsburg Bridge on the Lower East Side. Another surfer, just 18, was critically injured in the same incident.

Gulotta described watching footage of the 14-year-old boy falling to his death as horrific. Subway surfing has frustrated the NYPD; the deadly trend of youths risking their lives to ride outside moving subway cars has been propagated largely by social media, with youths eager to cheat death in the pursuit of internet fame.

“We see repeat offenders, and that’s really an issue that’s upsetting, because we see the same group of people over and over again, a lot of times, it is a lifestyle, and it’s almost like the influencer type of lifestyle, where they get clout by doing this, and you know they’re going to come back and do it again,” Gulotta said. “Before school and after school, they are riding on top of that subway.”

Some of the young daredevils are repeat offenders who have gone as far as to steal MTA equipment, such as keys and radios, from employees’ bags and even train cabs that they have broken into, to feed their dangerous habit.

“We will see them wearing MTA vests that have been stolen, have possession of MTA radios, in possession of actual subway keys, train keys start the train. It’s problematic, and it’s something we’ve been really working closely on,” Gulotta said. “It’s over 60 repeat offenders since we’ve been tracking over the last five years.”

Nazario’s son, 15-year-old Zackery, died in 2023 while subway surfing.Photo by Dean Moses

Nazario’s son, 15-year-old Zackery, died in 2023 while subway surfing. After his passing, she discovered that he had left his phone at home, and when looking through it, the distraught mother found videos of her son participating in an act. Now she works with the NYPD to urge parents and their children to put an end to the trend.

“I want to tell the parents: Know where your kids hang out, know their what they consume online, know what they do after school within the school hours. Sometimes they leave the schools to do surfing. I cannot stress it enough. This past week, when the kid passed away, it impacted me heavily, because it was the same train and the same bridge, please stop subway surfing,” Nazario said. 

Nazario’s son, 15-year-old Zackery, died in 2023 while subway surfing.Photo by Dean Moses
What are police doing to stop subway surfing?

According to Chief Gulotta, the NYPD is attempting to take a multi-layered approach to prevent the deaths. He says the NYPD flies drones before and after school to scour trains for surfers and, if found, have the MTA stop the trains and send responding officers in minutes.

Gulotta noted that police also attempt to stay connected with repeat subway surfers, and have made house calls to dissuade them from engaging in the life-threatening activity.

“There’s some people we do get to, we do, we go and we do home visits, and in those home visits we speak with the parents, we go to schools to the guidance counselors, we speak to the students. I mean, this is a massive outreach. I think we’ve made some inroads,” Gulotta said. 

The NYPD says it has stopped 650 subway surfers since 2022, and 83 this year alone.