Page 4 - ARUBA TODAY

A4 U.S. NEWS
Friday 16 March 2018
Footbridge collapses onto busy highway, crushes 8 vehicles

Continued from Front Carlie Waibel, a spokes- sion to use what the bridge
woman for Sen. Bill Nelson, builders called an “innova-
Jacob Miller, a senior at said local officials told Nel- tive installation” was risky,
FIU, was visiting a friend in son that people had died, especially because the
a dorm when he heard si- but a final number had not bridge spanned a heavily
rens and horns honking. been confirmed. traveled thoroughfare.
He went to a balcony and An accelerated construc- “Innovations take a design
could see rubble coming tion method was supposed firm into an area where
down. to reduce risks to workers they don’t have applicable
“I saw there were multiple and pedestrians and mini- experience, and then we
cars crushed under the mize traffic disruption, the have another unexpected
bridge. It was just terrible. I university said. failure on our hands,” Bea
saw some people stopping Cristina Rodriguez, a junior said after reviewing the
their cars, trying to get out, at FIU, said she was not bridge’s design and photos
trying to assess the situation surprised when she heard of the collapse.
to see if there is anything about the collapse. She Kendall Regional Medi-
they could do to help,” he said the bridge seemed to cal Center received 10 in-
said. Emergency personnel work at the scene of a collapsed be built too quickly “to sup- jured people. Of those, two
The National Transportation pedestrian bridge at Florida International University on port everything that was on were in “extremely critical”
Thursday, March 15, 2018, in the Miami area. The brand-new
Safety Board sent investi- pedestrian bridge collapsed onto a highway crushing multiple there.” Rodriguez was not condition and the other
gators to the scene. Florida vehicles and killing several people. on campus Thursday but eight were stable with inju-
Gov. Rick Scott said he was (WTVJ NBC6 via AP) drives through the intersec- ries such as broken bones,
headed there as well. would take over the inves- clear. Florida Highway Pa- tion almost daily. bruises and abrasions, said
Miami-Dade Police Direc- tigation after rescue efforts trol Lt. Alejandro Camacho Renderings of the project Dr. Mark McKenney, the
tor Juan Perez said his de- are complete. told CBS News that there showed a tall, off-center hospital’s director of gen-
partment’s homicide team The exact death toll was un- were “several fatalities.” tower with cables at- eral surgery.
tached to the walkway to Of the two more serious
support it. When the bridge cases, one arrived in car-
collapsed, the main tower diac arrest but was re-
had not yet been installed, vived. The other had a seri-
and it was unclear what ous brain injury, McKenney
the builders were using as said.
temporary supports. The main companies be-
Robert Bea, a professor hind the $14.2 million con-
of engineering and con- struction project have
struction management at faced questions about
the University of California, their past work, and one
Berkeley, said it was too was fined in 2012 when a
early to know exactly what 90-ton section of a bridge
happened, but the deci- collapsed in Virginia.q

Two fleeing from immigration
agents dead in California crash

By OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ Agents with the U.S. Im-
Associated Press migration and Customs
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A Enforcement put on their
couple in the country ille- car’s emergency lights to
gally were fleeing U.S. im- pull over the couple’s SUV,
migration officials in a rural according to a statement
California farm town when from the Delano Police
they lost control of their car Department and the fed-
and crashed into a power eral agency. Neither the
pole, killing the husband police department nor ICE
and wife with six children, would address whether
police said. the agents were in an un-
The deaths Tuesday come marked car.
as immigrant advocates The SUV sped away when
say U.S. immigration agents the agents got out of their
are using unmarked cars to vehicle and then veered
pull over farmworkers in the onto a dirt shoulder, over-
state’s agricultural heart- turned and crashed into a
land as part of a Trump ad- power pole, killing Santos
ministration crackdown in Garcia, 35, and Marcelina
California. State laws limit- Garcia, 33, the statement
ing cooperation with fed- said.
eral immigration authorities The husband and wife,
have led to an increasing originally from the southern
clash between California Mexican state of Guerrero,
and the federal govern- mainly spoke Mixtec, an in-
ment. digenous language. q