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                                                                                                 U.S. NEWS Monday 19 March 2018






























            Bridge victim's grieving uncle lashes out at 'incompetence'



            By JENNIFER KAY              54,  were  found  inside  a  of those reported cracks.    surprised  to  hear  about  the concrete span, but the
            ALLEN G. BREED               white Chevy truck.           Amjad  Aref,  a  professor  cracks, and said it was not  voicemail  wasn’t  picked
            Associated Press             Navarro  Brown  was  pulled  with  the  University  of  Buf-  necessarily a problem.   up until after the collapse,
            MIAMI  (AP)  —  As  crews                                                                                           Florida   Department    of
            removed  bodies  from  be-                                                                                          Transportation officials said
            neath  a  collapsed  pe-                                                                                            Friday.  In  a  transcript  re-
            destrian  bridge  Saturday,                                                                                         leased  Friday  night,  Den-
            a  victim's  uncle  raged                                                                                           ney Pate with FIGG Bridge
            against what he called the                                                                                          Group  said  the  cracking
            "complete  incompetence"                                                                                            would need repairs but the
            and  "colossal  failure"  that                                                                                      company didn’t think it was
            allowed  people  to  drive                                                                                          a safety issue.
            beneath  the  unfinished                                                                                            University  officials,  howev-
            concrete span.                                                                                                      er, said Saturday that DOT
            "Why they had to build this                                                                                         officials  had  been  aware
            monstrosity in the first place                                                                                      of the cracking before the
            to  get  children  across  the                                                                                      collapse.  They  said  in  a
            street?"  said  an  anguished                                                                                       statement  that  represen-
            Joe  Smitha,  whose  niece,                                                                                         tatives of FIU and DOT met
            Alexa  Duran,  was  crushed                                                                                         with  a  FIGG  engineer  for
            in  Thursday's  collapse  at                                                                                        two  hours  Thursday  morn-
            Florida International Univer-                                                                                       ing  to  discuss  the  crack-
            sity. "Then they decided to                                                                                         ing, and determined there
            stress  test  this  bridge  while                                                                                   wasn’t  a  safety  issue.  The
            traffic  was  running  under-                                                                                       bridge fell soon afterward.
            neath it?"                                                                                                          “The  FIGG  engineer  of  re-
            Authorities  say  six  people   Six crosses are placed at a makeshift memorial on the Florida International University campus in   cord delivered a technical
            were killed when the struc-  Miami on Saturday, March 17, 2018, near the scene of a pedestrian bridge collapse that killed at   presentation regarding the
            ture  fell  onto  a  busy  six-  least six people on March 15.                                                      crack and concluded that
            lane  road  connecting  the                                                                 (AP Photo/Jennifer Kay)  there  were  no  safety  con-
            campus to the community                                                                                             cerns and the crack did not
            of  Sweetwater.  Crews  re-  from  the  rubble  Thursday  falo's Institute of Bridge En-  “Any bridge with concrete,  compromise  the  structural
            moved  two  cars  Saturday  and  later  died  at  the  hos-  gineering, said they should  that’s  made  of  concrete,  integrity of the bridge,” FIU
            morning  and  said  they  pital.                          have been "a big red flag."  there’s always cracks,” said  said.
            found three bodies, but of-  Authorities  have  not  re-  "Bridges are really very vul-  Verrastro,  who  has  been  NTSB officials have said it’s
            ficials  said  there  were  still  leased  Duran's  name,  but  nerable  when  they  are  an  engineer  for  42  years.  too  early  to  say  whether
            at  least  two  more  victims  her  family  has  said  she  under  construction,  when  “If they had concerns that  any  cracking  contributed
            beneath  the  rubble.  Late  died. The FIU freshman was  there  are  just  pieces,"  he  something  was  going  on  to the collapse.
            in the day they recovered  studying political science.    said.  "It's  like  still  a  flimsy  for  that  main  span,  then  In  a  news  release  late  Fri-
            a  third  car,  and  Saturday  The National Transportation  structure.  And  when  you  they  would  have  called  day, FIGG Bridge Engineers
            night  they  said  they  be-  Safety Board has confirmed  see cracks, somebody has  the sheriff or the police and  said  it  “continues  to  work
            lieved all victims had been  that  crews  were  apply-    to raise really a big flag and  closed the road. I would be  diligently” to determine the
            found.                       ing what's known as "post-   say, 'We need to do some-    very  surprised  if  it’s  deter-  cause of the collapse, and
            The Miami-Dade Police De-    tensioning  force"  on  the  thing. We need to figure out  mined  that  they  were  tak-  is  examining  the  steps  its
            partment  confirmed  the  bridge  before  the  failure.  what's  happening  quickly  ing a chance and trying to  team has taken. It added,
            names  of  four  victims  Sat-  Authorities  are  investigat-  and do any mitigating ac-  do something under traffic.  “The evaluation was based
            urday.                       ing  whether  cracking  that  tions to prevent further pro-  It’s just, as bridge engineers,  on the best available infor-
            Rolando  Fraga  Hernandez  was  reported  just  before  gression  of  damage  and  that’s just never done.”         mation at that time and in-
            and  his  gold  Jeep  Chero-  the span fell contributed to  ultimately  collapse,'  as  we  Two  days  before  the  col-  dicated that there were no
            kee  were  pulled  from  the  the accident.               saw here."                   lapse, an engineer with the  safety issues.” It also asked
            wreckage  Saturday.  Later,  Experts   interviewed   by  But  Ralph  Verrastro,  prin-  design firm left a voicemail  for  time  to  accurately  de-
            the bodies of Oswald Gon-    The  Associated  Press  were  ciple   of   Naples-based  to  say  some  cracking  had  termine  what  led  to  the
            zalez, 57, and Alberto Arias,  mixed  on  the  significance  Bridging  Solutions,  was  not  been found at one end of  accident.q
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