Joanna Lojo makes a photo collage of her and her friend of twelve years who passed away in a tragic accident last Friday. Forum Newsgroup photo by Natalia Kozikowska.
Hundreds of students, teachers and friends mourned the loss of Daniel Fernandez, a 16-year-old St. Francis Prep junior who died in a tragic accident last Friday after poking his head out a party bus escape hatch while the vehicle went under a New Jersey overpass.
On Friday, August 31st, the teen was headed to a Sweet 16 party in Garfield, New Jersey, with 65 classmates and friends aboard a rented double-decker Designer Transportation party bus. Just after crossing the Hudson River at approximately 6:45 p.m., Fernandez hit the underside of the Fletcher Avenue overpass in Fort Lee and a short time later, he was pronounced dead.
Published reports say a security guard aboard repeatedly warned kids on the bus not to open the escape hatch, but when he went to the lower floor of the bus, his instructions were ignored, leading to the horrible tragedy.
The Queens student was well known throughout his school and neighborhood. Scores of classmates and friends attended the teen’s wake on Labor Day at Kearns Funeral Home in Rego Park. The line for the wake stretched around the block as everyone waited to pay their last respects.
Brittany Partinico, remembered Fernandez as very well-liked and very popular. “He was outgoing…one of those kids you knew his face in a crowd. He had a lot of friends.” Partinico said she was devastated when she heard her friend and classmate had passed. “I actually just cried. It was really upsetting…he was so young and he didn’t deserve this.”
One of Fernandez’s best friends from school, Pino Viterale, said it was just a total shock when he heard about the accident. “I didn’t really believe it at first,” he said. “It’s hard to wrap your head around it…at such a young age, that this could happen.”
Viterale described his friend as someone who was always happy. “I never saw him with a frown on his face. He was always cracking jokes,” Viterale said. “He was never mean to anybody. He was a genuinely nice kid. He could light up a room.”
Rebeca Huerta, a friend who belongd to a Spanish club with Daniel at McClancey High School, also described her friend as a charismatic and caring person. “He was nice and very funny. He always had a smile on his face,” she said. “He was just too young,” she added. Close family friend, Joanna Lojo, struggled to hold back tears in an interview with The Forum.
Talking about her relationship with Daniel she explained the two have known each other for twelve years. Their shared Spanish heritage was a special bond between them.
“He was amazing. He was nice. He was funny. He always took care of you and had your back,” Lojo said. “If I needed to talk to him, he was always there. I could text him at 3 a.m. and he would answer. He was a good guy.”
Lojo, like many others, is having a very hard time accepting the news. “I couldn’t believe it,” she said. “I still can’t believe that he’s dead.”
By Natalia Kozikowska
