Aerial view shows a pedestrian bridge collapsed at Florida International University in Miami, Florida, U.S., March 15, 2018. REUTERS/Joe Skipper A bridge that was just recently erected in Miami collapsed on Mar. 15, resulting in the deaths of numerous people.
The pedestrian bridge connected Florida International University (FIU) and Sweetwater, a city in the Miami-Dade area, and permanently put into place on Mar. 10, although it had not officially opened. The collapse occurred at around 1:30 pm EST, trapping eight vehicles and sending eight people to the hospital. One person was in a coma and another suffered from cardiac arrest.
The official number of deaths has not yet been released, but multiple reports suggest that there were several deaths from the collapsed bridge.
It is not yet known what caused the bridge to collapse.
“Causes of what occurred here today…we will not speak to that right now, and it’ll probably be days before we can even make that assumption,” Miami-Dade Police Director Juan Perez told reporters.
FIU released the following statement:
— FIU (@FIU) March 15, 2018
The $14.2 million bridge was funded by a $19 million grant to FIU from the Department of Transportation. It was built by FGG Bridge Engineers and Munilla Construction Management through “Accelerated Bridge Construction” that caused the bridge to installed in six hours and lessening the negative impact on traffic.
Both companies released statements expressing their condolences to the victims and pledged to cooperate with investigations into the collapse. Munilla said they would be launching their own investigation to determine what went wrong.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said that President Trump would provide the necessary resources to the Miami-Dade area to handle the collapse of the bridge.
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