(Via Zerohedge)
Police in Miami-Dade County successfully removed two vehicles with three bodies inside from the rubble of Thursday’s pedestrian bridge collapse near the campus of Florida International University, according to Miami-Dade police Director Juan Perez.
That leaves at least two people who may still be buried in the rubble. Police warned that the final death toll won’t be known until all the vehicles have been removed, according to CNN.
The latest disturbing news from the accident comes after it was reported Friday that an engineer for the company that designed the bridge called a Florida Department of Transportation employee to warn about “some cracking” visible on the underside of the bridge. However, the state employee was out on assignment that day, and the call – from W. Denney Pate of FIGG Bridge Engineers – went unanswered until Friday, the day AFTER the deadly collapse, per the Wall Street Journal.
To be sure, the engineer who reported the cracking noted that, while the damage should be repaired, it didn’t appear urgent.
“We’ve taken a look at it and, uh, obviously some repairs or whatever will have to be done,” Pate said.
“But from a safety perspective, we don’t see that there’s any issue there so we’re not concerned about it from that perspective, although obviously the cracking is not good and something’s going to have to be, ya know, done to repair that.”
The Florida DOT issued a statement claiming that any safety issues with the project were the responsibility of the bridge’s design team.
Four vehicles remain stuck in the rubble. Police believe six people have died from the collapse – including the three whose bodies were recovered Saturday morning.
(Read The Rest Of The Story)