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Miami Pedestrian Bridge Collapses; Multiple Fatalities Feared Miami Pedestrian Bridge Collapses; Multiple Fatalities Feared
(35 minutes later)
A recently installed pedestrian bridge at Florida International University collapsed onto a busy road in Miami on Thursday afternoon, crushing cars beneath it, officials said, adding that they expected there would be several fatalities. A newy installed pedestrian crossway over a busy Miami thoroughfare at the Florida International University campus collapsed on Thursday afternoon, crushing cars and killing several people.
Lt. Alejandro Camacho, a spokesman for the Florida Highway Patrol, said in a telephone interview at the scene that there were five or six vehicles crushed underneath the bridge. Between six and 10 people may have died in the accident, Senator Bill Nelson, Democrat of Florida, told the CBS television affiliate in Miami. Mr. Nelson cited no one specifically, but said he had spoken to the university president.
“This pedestrian bridge weighs several hundred tons and it is still on the roadway,” he said. “I don’t know what is underneath.” He said he did not know how many people had been killed, but added, “there are going to be several, based on the amount of vehicles that are underneath.” Lt. Alejandro Camacho, a spokesman for the Florida Highway Patrol, said in a telephone interview at the scene that there were five or six vehicles crushed underneath the bridge, and officials said that some vehicles were stopped at a red light at the time the bridge came down.
The bridge, which has a span of about 174 feet over Miami’s 8th Street, connected the FIU campus on the western side of Miami with the city of Sweetwater. It had been built off-site and moved to the location on Saturday. The bridge was still under construction and not expected to open to the public until the end of the year, a university official said. “This pedestrian bridge weighs several hundred tons, and it is still on the roadway,” he said. “I don’t know what is underneath.”
Television footage showed fire rescue and police vehicles searching the scene, apparently for casualties. Lieutenant Camacho said he did not have a number for any fatalities, but added, “There are going to be several, based on the amount of vehicles that are underneath.”
The bridge had a span of about 174 feet over Southwest Eighth Street, a major thoroughfare that crosses the county, connecting the F.I.U. campus in western Miami-Dade County with the city of Sweetwater.
It had been assembled off-site and moved to the location on Saturday. The bridge was still under construction and was not expected to open to the public until the end of the year, a university official said.
“Barring somebody using it that wasn’t suppsed to be there, it’s either an engineering problem or it’s a construction problem, but that’s why you bring in the professionals,” Mr. Nelson told CBS Miami, noting that the deaths had come tragically soon after 17 people were shot at a high school in Parkland.
He said he had spoken to the university president, Mark B. Rosenberg, soon after the collapse, and “you can imagine the near shock that he was almost in.”