‘How many more kids are going to die?’ – New York Daily News – NewsEverything New York

Friends, classmates and family members gathered Tuesday to remember Zackery Nazario, the 15-year-old who recently died while subway surfing on the Williamsburg Bridge.

At the Union Square Park vigil that drew about two dozen, buddies recalled warning the teen to be careful as he pulled his dangerous stunts.

“At least if you’re going to do it, be careful,” said Renzo Pereyra, a classmate of Zackery’s. “Zack always told me what he would do. And I would always tell him, you know, you got to be careful.”

Zackery was walking between cars on a Brooklyn-bound J train with his 17-year-old girlfriend on Feb. 20 when he climbed onto the train’s roof as it crossed the East River on the Williamsburg Bridge.

His girlfriend stayed behind and peered over the top of the train. As Zackery turned to look at her, she watched in horror when he slammed into a low beam.

He fell between cars and was run over by the train. He died on the tracks.

After the tragic incident, Zackery’s mother insisted his girlfriend take her to the bridge and show her where her son died.

“I wanted her to show me exactly how it went,” Norma Nazario said Tuesday. “She told him, no — he still went up. She said the beam hit him so hard that she heard it.”

The teen was a freshman at the Clinton School, a public high school about a half block from Union Square Park.

“Zack was such a unique kid, he was so himself all the time,” said Renzo, a junior. “He was never afraid to show you who he was. He was always true to himself.”

Another friend said Zackery was involved in urban exploration, or urbexing, and wound often ride subways and explore tunnels.

“He knew what he was doing, at all times,” said 16-year-old Derek, a fellow urbexer. “He knew that the consequences was going to happen.”

Zackery introduced friends to the urbexing community, which frightened some of them.

“You keep doing it and something’s going to happen later,” Derek said. “I just wish it wasn’t him.”

Zackery’s mother hopes his death will motivate the MTA to implement safeguards for young people who do subway surfing.

“How many more kids are going to die?” Nazario asked.

MTA data shows a steep uptick in incidents of people riding on top of trains, in between cars or elsewhere outside them.

The number of such incidents more than quadrupled between 2021 and 2022, according to MTA figures. Last year, there were 928 such incidents, up from 206 in 2021.