His final hours and gruesome death played out on Twitter.
Daniel Fernandez and his teen pals tweeted up a storm before and after he was killed by a highway overpass when he poked his head out a top hatch of a double-decker party bus on the New Jersey side of the George Washington Bridge.
The story came out in the surreal style of the digital era: in messages of no more than 140 characters.
The crowd of 65, including many from a Queens Catholic high school, was gearing up for a wild Friday night, tweeting about getting “sauced” at a friend’s Sweet 16 party at a catering hall in Garfield, NJ.
Hours before, Fernandez, 16, about to begin his junior year at St. Francis Prep in Fresh Meadows, asked a pal over Twitter: “Are they checking on the bus??”
“Yeah be careful brooooski,” she warned back to Fernandez, whose handle was DanMotherf–ker.
Friends posted pictures of party girls in blue dresses. One kid bragged, “The amount of bottles on this limo is rediculous.”
When tragedy struck at about 6:45 p.m., classmates tweeted their panic — and their friends responded in disbelief.
“Did something happen to Dan or are you all being d–ks,” his friend Tay said.
“Please pray for him,” said a pal, Vicky, via her handle @VBudz. “This isn’t a joke.”
Vicky, heartbroken, later tweeted: “Sitting here with your blood on my foot wishing this was all a bad dream. I love you so much dan you were there for me till the last second.”
When Fernandez was removed from the bus, his best friend, Stephen Gagliardo — who was also celebrating his birthday — pleaded: “The best birthday present would be for my best friend Dan to be good. I love you kid stay strong.”
Another worried pal, Kayla, tweeted, “Nobody listen to the news they’re lying scumbags,” after radio and TV reported Fernandez was dead.
They even tweeted as they were being questioned by police.
“I don’t wanna be in this cop car, I just wanna go home and everything to be okay,” said Maria Sefcik. “Please god I’m begging.”
Bobby Perretti said, “Just hoping for that one tweet or text with good news, this isnt fair.”
Stephen Dierks couldn’t get the grisly scene from his mind. “Everytime I close my eyes i think of what happened and what i saw tonight #notsleeping,” he tweeted.
Fernandez’s girlfriend, Alexa, tweeted, “I guess us kissing tonight was goodbye??”
Yesterday, a Facebook page called “RIP Dan Fernandez” had about 2,000 followers. St. Francis students held a candlelight vigil at the school last night.
“This is why no other school compares to prep, we stick together through thick and thin,” tweeted Daniel. “I’m so proud to call myself an sfp terrier.”
“Please everyone try to wear blue, his fav color,” Alexa wrote.