Pedestrian Bridge collapsed, several people died and injured

Pedestrian Bridge collapsed, several people died and injured

Just five days after it was installed, a 950-ton pedestrian bridge at Florida International University in Miami-Dade County collapsed across eight lanes of traffic Thursday afternoon, killing at least four people, fire officials said.

Eight vehicles were trapped beneath the fallen concrete and nine victims were pulled from the debris, fire officials said. The victims’ conditions were not released by authorities.
Firefighters got the call for help at 1:30 p.m. Search and rescue crews worked into the night to try to find survivors.

The $14.2 million, 174-foot-long bridge, which FIU said swung into place on Saturday, spanned eight lanes of Tamiami Trail near Southwest 109th Avenue. It had not yet opened to the public.

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Witness Susie Bermudez told , she was driving toward the bridge that connected the college campus to the city of Sweetwater when she saw it fall.

“There’s probably like seven or eight cars under the bridge, so it was very shocking to me, and I’m very grateful to be alive,” Bermudez said.

The Florida Highway Patrol has said several people were killed but did not release a figure on fatalities. At one point, police requested television helicopters leave the area so rescuers could hear for any sounds of people crying for help from beneath the collapsed structure, CBS Miami television said.

Complicating the rescue effort was the uncertainty about the integrity of the bridge, parts of which remained off the ground, much of it inclined, local media reported. The 174-feet (53-meter) long bridge connects the university with the city of Sweetwater and was installed on Saturday in six hours over the eight-lane highway, according to a report posted on the university’s website.