Six killed as pedestrian bridge collapses over Miami highway

Six people have died after a bridge collapsed onto a Miami highway, authorities have confirmed | WATCH

Emergency personnel work at the scene of a collapsed bridge in the Miami area. Picture: AP.

As Florida authorities work to identify the six people killed when a Miami footbridge collapsed on their cars yesterday, state and federal investigators will begin the task of figuring out how and why the five-day-old span failed.

The bridge was suspended from cables that were determined to have loosened. While they were being tightened, the span collapsed, Florida senator Marco Rubio said.

Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez said crews were conducting a stress test on the bridge when it collapsed.

The bridge had been installed only last Saturday.

A brand new pedestrian bridge has collapsed onto a highway at a US college, with multiple people killed. #FIUBridgehttps://t.co/m9uYK6PK8h pic.twitter.com/T9svNQOotR

— The Australian (@australian) March 15, 2018

Miami-Dade County Fire Chief Dave Downey said his crew was using hi-tech listening devices, trained sniffing dogs and search cameras in a race to find anyone still alive in the rubble.

“We have to remove some of this piece by piece. It’s very unstable,” Chief Downey said.

The $US14.2 million ($18.2m) bridge was supposed to open next year as a safe way for students to cross the busy road. It linked the community of Sweetwater with the campus of Florida International University.

Aerial footage at the site showed a trained dog running atop fallen concrete and sniffing in the crevices for any victims. But Miami-Dade Police Director Juan Perez acknowledged the likelihood of finding more victims under the rubble was slim.

“We know that there’s going to be a negative outcome at the end of the day,” Mr Perez said.

Cranes are pulling the #fiubridge up to get bodies from underneath. @MiamiHerald pic.twitter.com/hISgi7kTvV

— Monique O. Madan (@MoniqueOMadan) March 15, 2018

Six people were found dead and at least nine others were ­injured and taken to hospital.

Senator Rubio said the public and the families of the dead and injured deserved to know “what went wrong”. Senator Rubio, who is an adjunct professor at FIU, said the bridge was intended to be an innovative and “one-of-a-kind engineering design”.

The accelerated modular building method was supposed to reduce risks to workers and pedestrians and minimise traffic disruption. The method enabled the bridge to go up in a day. FIU had opened The Accelerated Bridge Construction Centre in 2010.

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue division chief Paul Estopinan said at least eight cars were trapped when the 950-tonne concrete bridge suddenly gave way.

Family and friends of the injured or killed are being gathered inside an unknown classroom at @FIU where they’ll meet with police chaplains. @MiamiHerald pic.twitter.com/AO3Cg3rXDu

— Monique O. Madan (@MoniqueOMadan) March 15, 2018

Police detective Juan Carlos Llera said “it sounded like an ­explosion. A huge bang”.

“It looks like a disaster area. It looks literally like a bomb went off,” he said.

Isabella Carrasco, who arrived on the scene just after the collapse, told CNN some cars were crushed, and there was “just a lot of debris everywhere”. She saw one woman get out of a car that was “just nicked” and rescuers performing lifesaving CPR on ­another person in the street.

Another driver, Lynnell Collins, was about to make a right turn when “the whole thing really just came down”.

“I got out of my car and me and a few other people were sprinting over there. We started helping people whose cars were at least half crushed and whoever was easily saved.”

President Donald Trump said he was monitoring the “heartbreaking bridge collapse”.

AP, AFP