Multiple people are dead after a pedestrian bridge in Miami collapsed, crushing “five to six vehicles.” The bridge, which stood outside the Florida International University, had only been erected on Saturday.
DEVELOPING: A pedestrian bridge at Florida International University collapses; 6 people injured, according to Miami-Dade fire officials https://t.co/HbVQgXj9U3 pic.twitter.com/YuLzM4gVZE
— CBS News (@CBSNews) March 15, 2018
A tactical response team from Miami-Dade Fire Rescue are currently working to secure the structure while searching for victims, but it has been established that there are multiple injuries and likely a number of fatalities.
“We heard a loud bang behind us … and we looked back and the bridge had completely collapsed,” said Isabella Carrasco, a student at the University of Miami, in an interview with CNN.
In a statement, the university said it was “shocked and saddened about the tragic events unfolding at the FIU-Sweetwater pedestrian bridge.”
BDI, the engineering company who constructed the bridge on Saturday, quickly purged information about the project from their social media platforms.
Engineering company BDI appears to have quickly deleted this tweet. pic.twitter.com/hA1McwVubS
— David Mack (@davidmackau) March 15, 2018
Similarly, FIU removed a page on their news website about the bridge’s construction, though a cached version is still available. In it, the university brags that the installation only took six hours thanks to its innovative method of construction:
To keep the inevitable disruption of traffic associated with bridge construction to a minimum, the 174-foot portion of the bridge was built adjacent to Southwest 8th Street using a method called Accelerated Bridge Construction (ABC) and was driven into its perpendicular position across the road by a rig in only six hours on Saturday, March 10.
We’ll keep you updated as more info emerges.
