The first of six victims of yesterday’s fatal bridge collapse at Florida International University has been named as 18-year-old student Alexa Duran, with her father confirming the tragic news to the media overnight.
Duran was reportedly driving her friend Richie Humble home from a doctor’s appointment when the newly-installed footbridge collapsed onto her Toyota SUV. He was able to escape, but could not pull her from the crushed vehicle.
Her name had been on a list of missing persons after the bridge collapse, but her father Orlando Duran spoke to Florida paper El Nuevo Herald overnight, saying: “My little girl was trapped in the car and couldn’t get out. She died when the bridge collapsed on top of her car.”
“She was an angel,” he continued. “She wanted to become a lawyer, and she was so beautiful.”
Speaking to the Today show in the US, Humble said that he was injured in the crash, but was able to escape the vehicle as the passenger side was not as badly crushed as the driver’s. He explained:
“We were parked at a red light and I started to hear the bridge creak, so I look up and I saw the bridge falling on top of us. It fell on the roof of the car and … kind of caved in on my neck and squished me down. But I didn’t really know what was going on at all. I tried to duck but at the same time it was just way too fast.”
Alexa Duran was in her first year of a political science degree at FIU. The five other victims of the tragedy have not yet been named.
