A 16-year-old boy lost his life Friday night after he stuck his head out of the emergency hatch of a double-decker party bus. Hundreds of students gathered in New York for a candle light vigil for Daniel Fernandez. Fernandez was among 65 other teens who were headed back to Queens after a Sweet 16 party in New Jersey when the accident occurred near the George Washington Bridge. Read more below.
Hundreds of students have taken part in a candlelight vigil in New York for Daniel Fernandez, a 16-year-old who was killed during a bus trip to a party in New Jersey Friday night.
Authorities say he stuck his head out of the emergency hatch of a double-decker bus and hit the underside of a highway overpass.
He was among 65 teens on the bus from New York City.
A security guard tells the New York Daily News that he had told the teens on the bus not to open the hatch. He says they had been dancing, and that the bus had gotten hot. He says he went downstairs to tell the driver it was getting too hot, and that he was downstairs for perhaps five minutes when he heard teenagers screaming.
Friends sent sad Twitter message reacting to the death. One wrote, “Sitting here with your blood on my foot wishing this was all a bad dream.”
The teen’s former English teacher in Queens says, “Sometimes kids don’t recognize their own mortality.” She describes Fernandez as “an adorable, low-key kid, with a sweet smile” who had “lots of friends and was popular with the girls.”
