‘Several fatalities’ in bridge collapse
Cars passing on Fla. freeway below buried under tons of falling rubble
MIAMI – A newly installed 950-ton pedestrian bridge at Florida International University collapsed Thursday, crushing vehicles on a busy highway below and killing several people.
“There are several fatalities,” Florida Highway Patrol Lt. Alex Camacho said.
At a news conference, Miami-Dade Deputy Mayor Maurice Kemp did not elaborate on the number of fatalities, saying the final number of victims had not been determined. Teams were in an “urgent search-and-rescue mode” and mobilized search dogs and heavy cranes, he said.
Kemp said eight cars traveling on the seven-lane highway were trapped under tons of rubble. Eight victims were taken to a hospital.
One girl seated in the front of a car escaped injury when a slab of the bridge crushed the rear half of the vehicle, the
Miami Herald reported. The National Transportation Safety Board tweeted that it sent investigators to the site.
Leslie Vazquez was driving home along 8th Street — also known as U.S. Route 41 — when she realized something felt strange.
“I was thinking, ‘Oh my God, the bridge isn’t there,’ ” said Vazquez, 43, a housewife who traveled the route two days ago. She pulled over and saw victims crawling out of the rubble. Some were bloodied; all were frantic. “They were screaming,” she said. Vazquez said the painful irony of the collapse is that the bridge was built specifically to ensure the safety of FIU students who have to cross fast-moving traffic along the wide street.
“I was just telling my husband how good this is, how they’re not running the risk of getting hit,” she said. “This is so sad.”
The main part of the $14.2 million structure, which was installed Saturday, spanned 174 feet over the highway, linking the university’s campus to the city of Sweetwater. It was scheduled to open in early 2019.
Tana Melvin was sitting in his dorm room a couple of hundred yards away from the bridge when his social media feeds blew up with news of the collapse. Then came the calls from family and friends checking on him. Melvin, 20, a sophomore studying accounting, said he had several friends who moved into the off-campus housing for which the bridge was designed. He struggled to contact them Thursday afternoon, hoping they weren’t among the victims.
“That could’ve been me,” Melvin said. “A lot of people died. It really is sad. We’ve got to stay together after this.”
FIU spokesperson Maydel SantanaBravo said the university was “shocked and saddened about the tragic events.” The school is on spring break.
MCM Construction, the Miamibased, family-owned company that built the bridge, issued a statement on its Facebook page saying its “thoughts and prayers go out to everyone affected by this terrible tragedy.”
It said the bridge was under construction and “experienced a catastrophic collapse causing injuries and loss of life.” MCM pledged to cooperate fully with investigators to determine what went wrong.
Gov. Rick Scott tweeted, “I will be in constant communication with law enforcement throughout the day.”
In a news release Saturday about the bridge’s installation, the university reported that workers lifted the main span from temporary supports, rotated it 90 degrees across the highway and lowered it into its permanent position.
“FIU is about building bridges and student safety. This project accomplishes our mission beautifully,” FIU President Mark Rosenberg said in a statement. “We are filled with pride and satisfaction at seeing this engineering feat come to life and connect our campus to the surrounding community where thousands of our students live.”
“That could’ve been me. A lot of people died. It really is sad. We’ve got to stay together after this.”
Tana Melvin
Florida International University sophomore