The final moments of a teen’s life were immortalized on Twitter following his death on Aug. 31.
“Party bus to ma gals sweetsixteen @LovePolzz” tweeted Taylor Martin on Saturday afternoon.
The “party bus” referred to a double-decker bus that was rented out for the evening to celebrate Poly K’s sixteenth birthday. Excited for the night’s events, none of the other 60+ New York City teenagers on the bus were prepared for what the coming hours had in store.
Shortly after 6pm, as the bus made its way into New Jersey, Daniel Fernandez poked his head out of a ceiling hatch and collided instantly with a highway overpass.
“Praying for you Dan , you’ll pull through” tweeted Bobby Perretti at 6:14PM.
Fernandez was rushed to Hackensack Medical Center, while police questioned his friends aboard the bus about the tragic accident.
“The last place I want to be right now is stuck in a police station with no answers,” Martin tweeted. �
Fernandez was pronounced dead at 6:40pm, and the news quickly spread through Twitter, where Fernandez’s friends shared their feelings of shock and grief.
“I’ll never be able to accept what happened today,” tweeted close friend Stephen Gagliardo, who was also celebrating his birthday aboard the party bus.
“The things id do to redo these last 8 hours,” wrote Dylan Lawrence.
According to Topsy, the hashtag #ripdan has been used over 700 times since Aug. 31, while #staystrongdan appeared in over 300 tweets. As the event was reported by local and national media outlets, people who were not friends with Fernandez or his friends also expressed their sympathies.
“I didn’t even know the kid but you never want to see someone pass away that young. It’s awful. Feel better prep fam,” tweeted @JoeSantagato
To friends like Stephen Dierks, the events of Aug. 31 will not go away anytime soon.
Photo courtesy of iBjorn/Flickr
