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| Florida bridge collapse: several dead after new walkway falls on busy road | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| A newly installed pedestrian bridge has collapsed at Florida International University in the Miami area, crushing at least five vehicles and causing multiple deaths and injuries. | |
| The 950-ton span fell on Thursday afternoon at the university’s main Miami-area campus. Video shows vehicles underneath the bridge were hit. | |
| “Several people were killed. I just don’t know how many,” Alejandro Camacho, a spokesman for the Florida highway patrol, said. | |
| Munilla Construction Management, which installed the bridge, said in a statement the bridge suffered a “catastrophic collapse causing injuries and loss of life”. | |
| The 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 story that was posted on the university’s website. It was 174ft (53 meters) long and weighed 950 tons. | |
| The bridge was intended to provide a walkway over Southwest Eighth Street, one of the busiest roads in south Florida. An 18-year-old female FIU student from San Diego was killed while trying to cross the street near FIU last August, according to local media reports. | |
| Several people were seen being put into ambulances and the authorities launched search and rescue missions. Miami-Dade fire rescue at first tweeted that “multiple” people were injured, then the highway patrol weighed in and announced an as yet unknown number of dead. | |
| The overhead walkway was only installed on Saturday, and was put in place to increase the safety of students crossing the busy Tamiami Trail from one area of the campus to another. | The overhead walkway was only installed on Saturday, and was put in place to increase the safety of students crossing the busy Tamiami Trail from one area of the campus to another. |
| One witness on Thursday, speaking on CNN, said she heard “a loud bang” behind her just after she and her boyfriend had driven under the bridge and made a right turn into the FIU campus. | |
| “We thought maybe someone had hit us. We looked back and the bridge had completely collapsed,” Isabella Carrasco said. | |
| “We got out of the car. We saw police helping people, there was a construction worker injured at the side of the road. The cars were completely crushed, a lot of debris everywhere. One woman luckily made it out alive, it crushed the back of her car, she rolled forward and was able to get out. | |
| “I know they pulled one person out of a car and started performing CPR on the street. Someone asked a police officer if they heard any response from people inside cars and she shook her head and said no.” | |
| A statement from FIU addressed to “members of the university community” said the rescue operation was ongoing. | |
| “We are shocked and saddened about the tragic events unfolding at the FIU-Sweetwater pedestrian bridge,” it said. | |
| “At this time we are still involved in rescue efforts and gathering information. We are working closely with authorities and first responders on the scene.” | |
| Another witness, student Jonathan Munoz, said he and a professor ran to the scene after the collapse and saw “a scene of chaos”. | |
| “I heard people were screaming, I thought it was a car accident,” Munoz told CNN. “This intersection is very busy, there have been fatalities from students being struck, that’s why they built the bridge. | |
| “We both started running towards the intersection. EMS started to arrive, a worker was bleeding from the mouth, I don’t know how close he was to the bridge but he was obviously hurt. | |
| “There were doctors from the medical school on campus who came over in their white coats, figuring out who they could immediately get to. There were police and construction workers, it was a chaotic scene. No one knew exactly what to do.” | |
| According to the Miami Herald, the operation to install the 174ft span took several hours. Construction crews had spent several months erecting support towers on either side of the roadway, and cranes lifted the walkway into place on Saturday morning, the newspaper said. | According to the Miami Herald, the operation to install the 174ft span took several hours. Construction crews had spent several months erecting support towers on either side of the roadway, and cranes lifted the walkway into place on Saturday morning, the newspaper said. |
| The $14.2m project was funded by the US Department of Transportation. | The $14.2m project was funded by the US Department of Transportation. |
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