NEW YORK (AP) — 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."
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140-v-30-(Julie Walker, AP correspondent)--A teenager has been killed on a bus on the way to a Sweet 16 party. AP correspondent Julie Walker reports. (1 Sep 2012)
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APPHOTO NJHAC201: In this Friday, Aug. 31, 2012 photo, emergency personnel work the scene where a teenager headed to a sweet 16 party was killed after he stuck his head out of the emergency hatch of a double-decker bus and hit the underside of a highway overpass, along Interstate 95, in Fort Lee, N.J. (AP Photo/The Record of Bergen County, Chris Monroe) ONLINE OUT; MAGS OUT; TV OUT; INTERNET OUT; NO ARCHIVING; MANDATORY CREDIT (31 Aug 2012)
<<APPHOTO NJHAC201 (08/31/12)>>
