The second of two SUNY Maritime College students who slammed into a bridge while riding atop an elevated subway in the Bronx last week has died, officials said yesterday.
Brian Hochstetter, 21, was critically injured when his head hit the Whitlock Avenue bridge and died Tuesday, a hospital spokeswoman said.
"We did everything we could," said Jacobi Medical Center spokeswoman Nancy McPartlin. "We tried. We really tried everything we could to help that family and their son. Our hearts go out to them."
Hochstetter and Christopher Loughrey, a friend and classmate, were riding on the northbound No. 6 train on Oct. 20 after a night in Greenwich Village with two other classmates.
Loughrey and Hochstetter climbed on to the back cars and were surfing when they collided with a steel girder of the Whitlock Avenue bridge, while the two other classmates stayed on the train.
Loughrey, 22, died of a fractured skull immediately. He was buried Monday.
The conductor discovered Hochstetter between the last two cars of the train. His friends pulled him in to the train and went for help. He was rushed to Jacobi Medical Center, where he was being treated for head wounds since he was admitted.
The pair served a term at sea on the Empire State VI, one of the school's training ships.
Hochstetter showed signs of improvement in the days immediately after the accident, but succumbed to his injuries and died Tuesday afternoon.