Lets listen. Rosh is waiting for a live shot to begin. Were getting a picture from wsvn now. Multiple injuries on scene for the people they were able to take akay. The question is they bring in heavy movers and Big Equipment to remove the concrete and the cars. Craig stephens is on the news desk. Lets listen. We have a network of 7 News Reporters covering this. Were going to get started with 7s rosh lowe who looks like he has an interview ready. We have people here out of the campus and they are in shock. Well get to that in a moment. First, let me get to this statement from fiu, Florida International university. Lets go to the statement. Dear members of the university community, were shocked and saddened about the events up folding at the fiu sweetwater pedestrian bridge. At the time were still involved in rescue efforts and gathering information. Were working closely with authorities and First Responders on the scene. We will share updates as we have them. Somebody just sent me a photo. I want to make sure that we have this photo. This was a witness that was driving along southwest eight street right when this happened. You can see traffic we seeing that . We can see how traffic just stopped there. Stopped at the bridge. Obviously we do believe there was some cars underneath the bridge. We just spoke to andrea. Im going to help translate her or try my best. You were in class and you saw all of this. Tell me about that. [speaking spanish] shes saying her director told her the bridge had gone down. When she came out, she saw that the bridge had already collapsed and she saw the cars that were crashed and they told her several people had already died. What was that like . Shepard i want to interrupt just a moment. We just got new information from the Network News Service wplg abc for south florida which is reporting what we remembered from that witness. The witness said they were tightening a cable and something snapped. Heres what we can confirm. That is that there was a stress test underway for that bridge. Think of it this way. This noise is unbearable. They constructed the bridge in another place. They put the bridge into place or finished the process on saturday. Since then theyve been conducting stress tests on the bridge. There was one underway when the bridge collapsed this afternoon. Phil keating is on scene for us as he has been for the least better part of a half hour at least. Phil, well be reporting in the hours and days and weeks ahead on what caused this, who if anyone might have been responsible. Whatever that is, our greatest interest now is how are they going to get underneath that fridge to see if anyone is alive and when may as be as many as 18 cars under there. Yeah, absolutely. As you mentioned earlier, the mayor of the county said there were eight cars that he knew about, talking to Law Enforcement. Were beyond two hours since this happened. So the most critical thing here is if there are any people trapped in their vehicles or perhaps between the now pancaked pedestrian bridge and southwest eighth street that could be trapped but still alive under rubble. We have not yet received an update on the status of that. Remember, they have sound audio listening devices trying to discern like after an earthquake, you could hear any sounds or screams. We dont have an update on whether they have in fact fully explored those options. Multiple people have been taken to the hospital. The Public Information officer on the scene, theyre assembles where we are. In a few minutes were expecting the very first Media Statement on camera, press conference by miamidade fire rescue and the Law Enforcement authorities here on the fringe of the north side of the Florida International university campus. Its a major, major engine for this part of the county. This is a major thoroughfare that was opened to traffic. Whether the lights were red or green, the bottom line traffic has been flowing here for days even though the bridge wouldnt be open to students and pedestrian to walk across until next week. If a bridge is going to collapse over an open roadway, there is a very good chance there will be cars trapped underneath it just by the bad lack of timing. The roadway is closed off. Traffic around this area for miles and miles. Its rush hour. Notoriously atrocious rush hour of miami. This is going to be multiple days of detours for the locals. Right now are there survivors and people needing rescue. A lot of crews have arrived on scene and trying to get at that now. We should have uptodate information in a few minutes. Shepard i think we will. This is a live picture here. The local television station and the rest are setting up for you can see them zooming in to focus. We expect new information then. I want to show you video that we just got in. This is in the very moments just after this happened. Watch and listen. Oh, my goodness. Im shaking. This is crazy. You can see the people that were running toward the bridge in the very moments after the sirens blairing. These were among the people that saw this collapse. You can see the cars in front. If we go back to a live picture and we will after this is over, you can see some of the vehicles have been moved. Its my hope, im going to hope with you, that our witness to this was just wrong about there being vehicles in every lane. The bridge itself was over four lanes where there was a traffic light that would have stopped traffic. The other four lanes going in the other direction, that traffic would have been stopped on the other side of the intersection. So im hopeful that there arent cars in all eight of those lanes because if so, what a horrible situation there in south florida. A News Conference is about to begin in south florida. Theyll tell us what they can, phil, but we watched as rosh lowe reported on the bringing in of the heavy equipment. Have they been able to get to anybody . I dont know yet. I cant tell. We can see the bridge. We can see the partially collapsed half. All of these Emergency Responder trucks and cars are blocking the view of the pancaked part of the pedestrian bridge, which is now on the north four lanes of Severe Weather eight street. You have three construction cranes that were hear as it happened. Theyve been here for days and weeks as this is all being constructed, ready for open next week. The cranes you see were already here when the bridge collapsed. They have been trying to get in more heavy equipment. I havent seen any arrive. We show know more in the next couple minutes. Shepard i think we will, phil. I want to show our viewers where this is. This is southwest eight street. This is the tamiami trail. If you were to keep going, this would go to fort myers, this is 109th avenue. This is where the bridge is. The reason im showing you this is, some of the cars, even in this still picture here from google, some of the cars are waiting at the light. Heres the pedestrian crossing. Heres the pedestrian bridge. The other traffic would have been coming in this direction. So its our hope that there are not vehicles under the entire span of that. Now all of this area is very much grid look around that part of western miamidade. Over here you can see the earlier videos of them treating people on the scene. You can see minor injuries and authorities going up to see if there is anyone alive in any of these vehicles, which are underneath, this is a live picture coming to us a moment ago from scene, this is a streaming video. Then the setup of the News Conference is still underway, which weve been watching a couple minutes ago. Miamidade fire rescue, Miamidade Police are expected to be there to give us an update in just a moment. Wsvns coverage is continuing. They have blown out afternoon programming as this is yet another unbelievable event to take place in south florida. Just up the floor turnpike, which is this is very near in broward county, parkland is where the Horrible School shooting happened a month and a day ago. One month and one day ago it was. That you can imagine what that does to a community with 17 people murdered there. So many of them children. Very difficult time now for people in south florida. Now this. So much uncertainty at this moment. We dont know how many people have been injured. Maybe trapped under the bridge or lost their lives today. The authorities have said theres multiple injuries and multiple fatalities. Beyond that, if they have an understanding of who has perished and who has been injured, theyre not passing it along just yet to us. I can tell you, relatives of those that believe they may have relatives underneath there have gathered in a classroom and meeting with chaplains which just impossible to imagine on a sunny thursday afternoon in march in south florida, everything about your life is normal. A second later a bridge has collapsed on a loved ones and the cars are under there. Its my understanding that they have been able to see license plates. Some of these vehicles are rushed in a way that you imagine. Unthinkable tragedy. I was given a twominute warning and i dont know to who. We have to take a quick commercial break. We know theres a News Conference coming. Were going to take a very quick commercial break, were expecting your world with neil cavuto to come along. Once we find out from this News Conference exactly what happened here and whether they will be able to get the heavy lifting equipment in. In fact from the wider shot in the wall, from this picture you can see they have gotten some equipment in there. Lots of people in a wait and see mode. So lets take a quick commercial break. Well be back with the police News Conference and fire rescue conference after this. That mone. How long do you think well keep oooooohhh you stopped youre gonna leave me back here at year 9 . How did this happen . It turned out, a lot of people fell short, of even the average length of retirement. We have to think about not when we expect to live to, but when we could live to. Lets plan for income that lasts all our years in retirement. Prudential. Bring your challenges. Im mark and i quit smoking with chantix. I tried, um, cold turkey. I tried the patches. I was tired and i was fed up. I wanted to try something different. For me, chantix really worked. Along with support, Chantix Varenicline is proven to help people quit smoking. Chantix reduced my urge to smoke. When you try to quit smoking, with or without chantix, you may have nicotine withdrawal symptoms. Some people had changes in behavior or thinking, aggression, hostility, agitation, depressed mood, or suicidal thoughts or actions with chantix. Serious side effects may include seizures, new or worse heart or blood vessel problems, sleepwalking, or allergic and skin reactions which can be lifethreatening. Stop chantix and get help right away if you have any of these. Tell your Healthcare Provider if youve had depression or other Mental Health problems. Decrease alcohol use while taking chantix. Use caution when driving or operating machinery. The most common side effect is nausea. Quitting was one of the best things that i ever did. Ask your doctor if chantix is right for you. Many insurance plans cover chantix for a low or 0 copay. Shepard continuing coverage of breaking news out of south florida. Shepard smith in new york. Live coverage along the tamiami trail southwest eighth street and 109th avenue in western miamidade, west of downtown miami where a bridge has collapsed. A pedestrian bridge that had just been built. It was built off site, put in place over a very busy roadway, eightlane roadway that connects Florida International university and the community of sweetwater, which is the name of this Community Just west of downtown miami. About 15 miles west. And that bridge has collapsed on to vehicles on the road below. Theres a number of iffatalitie and injuries. A number of people were taken to the hospital in kendall and to others in miamidade. Now they have brought in heavy equipment to remove some of the bridge itself to see if they could find those that trapped underneath in these vehicles. They were calling it rush hour. The locals were. The rush hour in this part of miami and Miamidade County goes on for hours and hours. They were in the middle of a rush hourtype situation around 2 00 p. M. May sound a little strange, but its on point. The traffic situation there is chaotic at very best. The roads were packed. We dont know how many cars were under there. A witness on scene at the time, said he had been speaking with the authorities, having coffee at a nearby shop when it collapsed. He went over and took picture. He suggested 18 to 20 cars. Were hoping hes wrong. We know there are a number of vehicles there and be there a couple hours. The authorities are beginning to come to the microphones now. If the producers could let me know in the News Conference is beginning. Were going to do this in shepard while were waiting, senator bill nelson is with us again. This is unthinkable. Shepard, weve been enough tragedies. Here we go again. The irony of this is, a bridge that is built for safety to get people across an eightlane highway now ends up causing what im being told anywhere from 6 to 10 deaths. Youre not going to know until they pull that bridge off the crushed cars. You can imagine the grief that continues in south florida. First the cool and now this. Senator nelson, with whom have you spoken and what have you learned from that authority . The police chief, the mayor, ive talked to the University President just a few minutes after the collapse as he was racing to the scene. I talked to the secretary of transportation, elaine chao, to ask her to get an investigation going. I talked to the chairman of the ntsb. They have launched an investigation and are trying to get to miami right now with their investigators. Shepard do you know from speaking with the authorities if anyone was on the bridge, construction workers, pedestrian or otherwise or if the casualties involved were all from beneath the bridge . I do not know the answer to that question. Unless it was caused by somebody being where they shouldnt and weight collapsing it. Otherwise, its going to be a construction problem or an engineering problem. That is what the ntsb investigation will find. Police have early reporting is what it is. But police have told our local Network News Service wplg, local 10 in south florida, senator, there was a stress test underway for that bridge when this happened. In other words, they were seeing what it could handle to live up to category five raining it had and the 100year sustain able ty rating and apparently it did not. If thats the case, all their procedures were wrong. I think that will be rethought before they ever do Something Like that again. Senator, you said that you had you gave out a figure of a death toll. Weve been avoiding that because we were waiting to hear from an authority. Sir, you are that, an authority. Can you tell us where you get that . Well, you can imagine things are fluid at this point, shepard. I dont want to pinpoint numbers. Im telling you what i have been told in the course of all of the hurley burly trying to find out exactly what are the casualties. You can imagine the people, the families that are now anticipating that they may be in grief like the school in parkland. Its unthinkable. I know that sweetwater and fiu have been joined in so many ways, financially, emotionally, culturely or otherwise in decades there. And now fiu has grown and built this physical bridge was until today was a dream come true there, senator. It was. Its a very large state university. To get from that community, which is primarily residential, across this major highway, which is tamiami trail and to do that was going to be for safety. What an iron any. By the way, sweetwater is the hometown of my colleague, marco rubio. Im sure if hes back in miami, he will be available to you shortly. I cant thank you enough. Wsvn has new video from the scene. Lets listen. You can see cars, lights still underneath there. Police and fire already on the scene trying to get a handle on what we have here and how do we start to correct this huge undertaking. We are also getting in from our crews in the field eye witness accounts. Lets listen to that. And then all of a sudden we hear a bang. I turn and i look, i said, this cant be. This cant be. The bridge. He said no, the bridge. One of the officers runs to get the radio. He runs right back out. Hes screaming the bridge, the bridge. Im literally 300 feet away. So i turn and look. Then im seeing what looks as the bridge not having the same design as it had. So i run. The scene that i saw, the pictures that i have, over 20 cars under the bridge. You cant even see the tires. I mean, squished. Shepard that is as television is a cyclical and sharing mechanism, wsvn was using our sound that you heard. That was the most disturbing interview of the day. A man, jose mejia that was near there and ran over with his phone and began to pictures which we put on twitter. He was of the belief having walked up right to the bridge, he said, that there were 18 to 20 cars that were still trapped under there. Were just hoping that that is not the case in some way. Live pictures. You can see the authorities are making their way to the microphones. Theres a number of municipalities involved here. Miamidade fire rescue, another world renown agency doing everything they can to save lives there. Miamidade police. Used to be dade county. Its now called Miamidade County that i have a Police Department and sheriffs departments department. Sweetwater, near hialeah and opalaka and cuban communities, Florida International university with dozens and dozens of languages spoken there. Its truly an international university. Intellectual hub there in western Miamidade County. A thriving vibrant member of this expanding economy and community and hugs around on scene. Getting the numbers and all of that sort of thing is something that we can frankly wait for. The most Important News is do they know if anyone is still alive under the rubble and will they have an opportunity, will it be possible to get under that rubble at any time soon to see if they can extricate anyone that may be alive. If you remember in the early going, 2 1 2 hours ago now in the very early going, they asked for the choppers, the helicopters from the Police Department and the News Agencies there to move away. They needed to hear to see if anybody was screaming. The early reports is there were people trapped underneath that were crying for help. Some cars were not fully underneath the bridge or part where they werent fully pancaked. They got them out, got them to hospitals. Some people were pronounced dead on the scene. You may see a yellow tarp on the righthand side of your screen is a yellow tarp. That is a vehicle where were told someone lost their life. Beyond that, theres multiple fatalities. Senator nelson said that the number may be somewhat larger. Under all circumstances, horrific human tragedy unfolding. Still developing in south florida as we wait to see whether they will rescue any one. Weve been fortunate enough to have the facility of wsvn in florida. Now a live report from the field. Lets in as wsvns coverage continues. Many people managed to be on the other side of the collapse. They just left their cars and raced out of there. There was quite a few walking wounded. Sadly to the right where you see that yellow tarp, that is one person who we know has died on the scene. Thats why that car, that victim is being covered by the yellow tarp. Personnel assessed that they did not survive. For those ill mention this again. We have sheldon fox there. Well check back shortly. Theres a spot on campus thats been designated for families, loved ones that have concerns about anybody that would have been in that area to reconnect. The reunification being held in room 100 of the sasc building, 107th and 16th street. Youre told to take the 16th street entrance. Its been designated as the family Reunification Center. A lot of concern among folks worrying about anybody that was in the area. Thats where people are being told to head to reunite with loved ones. Shepard Craig Stephens speaking there, the local anchor of the main evening news cast on the news station there. A University Professor as well for university and students at fiu particularly. What an unbelievable thing. On this day, this reunifying bridge could cause such an absolute horrifying scene. Theyre all coming together now, the local authorities. Theyre doing introductions now. I want to let you know how this work. In south florida, they do News Conferences in english and then spanish and then they take questions. Because theres an enormous spanish population. So well listen to the English Version and then update you and listen as they take questions now to south florida. Good afternoon. Obviously we have a terrible tragedy here today with the bridge collapse. We have multiple fire rescue units on the scene, urban search and rescue, we have our technical rescue technicians and we have live search dogs right now. We have all of the heavy equipment we might need. We have four cranes. Were in a full search and rescue mode and give you more information as its available. We have multiple victims. The number has not been determined yet. Well give you more information on that. Fire and rescue will follow me with more details. Thank you. One last statement. Ive been in Constant Contact with the mayor by phone. Hes watching a live feed. Hes abreast of what is going on and giving directions as he sees fit. Thank you. Good afternoon. Im here from miamidade fire rescue. At approximately 1 30, we received a call for a collapsed bridge. Our units responded to find eight trapped vehicles under the bridge. At this time weve transported eight victims to hospitals. We have many, over 100 firefighters technically trained and our urban search and rescue working on the area on the bridge to try to find viable victims. Shepard i said earlier, we were hoping that the eye witness account was wrong, that there werent that many vehicles there. Sure enough. Eight. We were notified of a bridge collapse at this location, southwest eight street and 109th avenue. As united aarrived with Miamidade Police and fire, we observed several vehicles involved as a result of the collapse. It shifted to a search and rescue effort. Were asking the public to assist us but avoiding the of southwest eight street and 117th avenue indefinitely as this process goes on. Thank you. Good afternoon. Im juan perez. The director of the Miamidade Police department. All of our thoughts and prayers go to the victims of this tragedy that has occurred here today. Youve heard from our partners here. Many other partners that are out here in Law Enforcement and firefighters have come to the aid. We thank them for their efforts. Fiu is here, the Police Department has been great. Were partners with sweetwater and doral and so many others that have come. If i miss you, i apologize. We thank the agencies out here supporting these efforts. Right now were assisting nds efforts, the main focus here, the Fire Department obviously is to rescue people. That is what were assisting with by controlling traffic, assisting fhp with traffic for now. Were on stand by. As soon as the efforts are over, or Homicide Bureau will take the lead. We will take the lead from that point on. The state attorney is on stand by and waiting to come in and work the case with us. So for right now, thats all we have as far as this incident. A very Important Message that i also have is that we have established with the partnership through fiu a Reunification Center at fiu. If you want more information, contact 3053483481. That is the number that has been established for Family Members that are concerned that maybe are Family Members or friends are victimedized by this incident. If you call that number, well help you out. If youre a Family Member and concerned, contact that number. There is an area here to respond for the Family Members only. Fiu police are on stand by to escort everybody that comes in that wants to get to the family Reunification Center where our victim advocates are at so that they can assist with whatever needs are required of those individuals. The last thing i would like to share is that what you heard from fhp to stay out of the area. Please stay out. I also need you, the media, to please cooperate with us. There should be no information that is coming out regarding this indecident unless its comg from us. We will periodically update you. We do not need erroneous information getting out to the public. What that does, it complicates things. We want to be the ones to contact next of kin. We want to notified Family Members. Let us do that. We dont want Family Members who find out that a loved one is involved in this tragic incident because somebody puts it out in the media. Respect the Family Members, those that have been impacted from the bottom of my heart. Please cooperate with us today more than ever so others impacted are not impacted by watching it on the news. We definitely dont want that. We want it to be controlled. Let us do that. We have victim advocates with us. We would like to do that. If you can cooperate with that, it would be truly appreciate that. Thank you. Shepard obviously we never have, never will go with names of victims of tragedies like this before. We certainly respect their professionalism and the hard work that First Responders do for us every single day. Its a mutual thing. Theyre going with spanish now. If theres any good news, its not 18 to 20 cars under there as our witness said. They believe eight. Back to english now. As the mayor of sweetwater, we stand here in solidarity. Weve had a National Tragedy on our hands. Our hearts are here extended out to those that the victims that were able to be transported away as well as those that may not be walking away from the scene. Id like to thank all Law Enforcement as well as local government that have cooperated with us. Ive had numerous calls from Law Enforcement agencies and First Responders. Those are the true heros here trying to save search for the victims that could still be trapped under the bridge. It was shocking news at 1 48 when i received a call from a mechanic that works from sweetwater and says the bridge just collapsed. I can hear the crackling in his voice as hes telling me. It was devastating. Had to rush here as quickly as possible to assess this and work with Law Enforcement and search and rescue agencies. One kudos that id like to give out, Sergeant Dave geland. He was a first responder. According to his wife, because hes still too broken up, he worked on a victim for 15 minutes to work on that person and keep them alive. Try to keep all communications to this establishment. Theres been a lot of false messages going out. Try to limit it to this call center please. What were your questions . Plenty of people that have to speak. [question inaudible] questions will be answered at the end. Good afternoon. Im the Vice President and ceo at fiu. Obviously our hearts are broken over this tragedy that have impact add good number of people. Right now our First Priority is with the family and friends of the victims. Were going to do anything and everything we can to assist them during this process. Question have mechanisms in place to provide the highest level of assistance and we will provide whatever assistance is needed. Id like to echo the comments of my colleagues that have been up here. The First Responders have been amazing. Theyve been here in just a matter of minutes to assist those in need. We have and will continue to work with them as well as the appropriate governmental authorities as this tragedy is investigated. Thank you. Shepard as is custom in south florida, theyll give Spanish Language to the local Spanish Language television that informs much of the population down there. What we dont know is whether they believe people are still trapped and possibly alive beneath that bridge. They have very much theyve been very clear this is a search and rescue mission. Its not as if they are relegated to cleaning up and carrying away the victims. You can see the picture, if you look straight ahead and to the left of center, theres a dog on top of one of the beams. Theyre using the k9 to search important people that may be alive there. And then they say they have the equipment they need, the personnel that they need. We dont know about the stability of this bridge. Is it safe to bring people in and try we dont know these things. Heres what we do know. When they finish with the Spanish Language version, one member of the miamidade fire rescues battalion chief is speaking to the locals in spanish. Right when that is over, the authorities have promised us that they will answer questions of the media who are there on scene and maybe from that well be able to find out if they even know if its possible that people are still alive understood there. We dont know we can imagine what its like beneath the bridge. Frankly wed rather not. We hope parts of it are such that people have had a chance to survive and they havent gotten to them. Lets listen and learn. Okay. Now florida Highway Patrol were the Spanish Language version of what we just heard. Trace gallagher, eight cars according to authorities trapped under there. I would assume and i dont know about you, but if they think its possible, somebody might be alive under there, might have expected them to be moving expeditiously. Thats not what were seeing. Shep, its a good thing. I listened to your witness interview when he said 16, 18 cars. We counted the lanes like you did. Said no, cant be that many. They would be on opposite sides of the roads. The dog there, goes back to what we saw in 2007 in minneapolis. They were going in there and looking for people. Seven people were killed and 145 were injured in the minneapolis bridge collapse. The first things they wanted to do is send in the dogs in there. The dogs will go in there. Even if you cant hear anybody, theres a person in there and could be alive. The other thing, because of the way this is teetering, you go on the engineering blogs and the engineers are worried if you left up the left side if its collapsed, what happens to the right side . Its teetering there. Will it push up . Thats one of the things thats being going over right now. The National Transportation safety board, the engineers are on the scene and theyre going over the blueprints to make sure that before they move any of this concrete weve seen them earlier move the lighter pieces up top. Some of the blocks have been moved. Before they left up these heavy pieces of concrete, they want to make sure that its not going to do more damage. The people that sadly have passed away in this tragedy, theres nothing you can do for them but theres something you can do for people that may be injured and unconscious and they want to go about it the right way. Theres no hurry to get this bridge up and off unless they find somebody that is alive and trapped and then its imperative that they work has quickly as possible to get as much debris all of them as they can, shep. Shepard trace gallagher. Thank you. Were still monitoring the News Conference. As i mentioned, always in south florida, major scenes, they give you the tick tok of what happened in english and the tick tok in spanish and then answer questions. Were waiting the media questions. Were also waiting to speak with congressman carlos corbello for the 26th district. Hes on the line with us now. Congressman, im so sorry for what were seeing today. What have you learned . Shepard, good afternoon from the capitol where im still in shock after learning this news earlier today. Im blessed to represent Florida International university. Fiu is a happy place. Its where people from all over the world and many people from our own community go to learn, to grow and to debate ideas. For this to happen there, a new project that was actually designed to help save lives because students have to cross that busy street and have had to for many years. This terrible irony where that bridge has now cost lives in our community. Ive been in touch with elaine chao who is on top of everything. She assured me the federal government would do everything in its power to assist with the investigation, get to the bottom of what happened. Ive also been in touch with local authorities, Florida International university administration. Completely devastated like we all are. The human aspect of this is so painful. Imagine someone whose child, parent or friend did not get home because they were killed be a falling bridge. Its just unthinkable, unspeakable and we ask the entire country to pray for these families and our community. Shepard congressman curbelo, including station 10, that police have told them that a stress test was underway. Its an observer of process, not a reporter of news. I know nothing about engineering. So many viewers have said if youre doing a stress test, why would you have cars underneath, which is a good question. Did you ask it . Yes, the secretary and i started having a conversation about what may have happened. Obviously its too early to say with absolute certainly. Clearly this was a new bridge. Its not an old bridge. There was some testing taking place. It is a very good question that must be answered, why more precautions werent taken before conducting this type of stress test, if indeed that was the case. But what i told the secretary is that the federal government obviously isnt responsible for responding immediately. Thats why we have miamidade fire and rescue among the most talented First Responders in the world. Miamidade police as well under the leadership of juan perez. The federal government does indeed need to help us get to the bottom of what happened. If people must be held accountable, which i assume there will be people who made mistakes, errors in judgment, well, the federal government needs to be there to help us reach those determinations and then see how we proceed. Shepard thanks, congressman curbelo. Federal authorities are coming in for the investigation. Congressm congressman curbelo, the best to you. Leonette, i heard that you heard what happened and went running. Tell us what happened. Yes. We have the restaurant by the side of the bridge. The bridge was open saturday. We were taking pictures of the great moment of the bridge being open. Today we just heard the great sound of the thing coming down. Shepard leonette, im so sorry. But authorities are answering questions on how many people were trapped. I can assure you that our teams are in rescue and search mode. Theyre still working the debris pile. We have search dogs in place, we have technical listening devices, drilling holes to the pile to locate patients. Are there people there or you dont know . We dont know. Were in search and rescue mode. Has anyone been declared dead . I cant speak to that. Was there a stress test being conducted one question at a time. Im sorry. Those type of questions can only be answered once we begin the investigation. Causes of what occurred here today, we will not speak to that right now. It will probably be days before we can make that assumption. This takes an intense investigation. Were not even there yet. The next few hours will be a rescue mission. So if you can, if you have questions, keep to it the rescue mission, to the victim unification, those type of questions. Its too early. How many people were rescued alive. The last person was transferred 45 minutes ago. Condition . I cant speak to that. How concerned are you about the construction integrity i can tell you the rescue are working with the engineers on site. Were concerned with a portion of the bridge. Theyre working the north site of the bridge with dogs and personnel. Were actively trying to stabilize areas to continue the search. Are you concerned about the part leaning 30 degrees in the road . Thats correct. Do the audio listening devices helped you locate anybody . I cant speak to that. The teams were entering the debris field, the hot zone while i walked over. Obviously you want people to stay out of the area. Can you walk us through the process from here on in . There will be a long incident. Well have rescuers here throughout the night. The focus is on search and rescue. We have over 100 technicians that have many years worked on collapses with concrete. You can expect heavy equipment, creating safe zones to continue the search. [question inaudible] i cant speak to how many victims in the car. Is there people in every car . I cant speak to that. We can eight from the exterior of the bridge, of the collapsed area. Were working our way into the pile trying to create holes that we can see. What type of information did you get from the construction site manager about who was working where, who was on the bridge, what did they tell you . The only thing i speak to, we did get reports there were workers on the bridge. When our units arrived, they had surface rescued they facilitated and two victims that they extricated from the debris. That was part of the eighth that i mentioned. [speaking spanish] [question inaudible] you could not say how many people have died here at this point. You dont know . Were not confirming any deaths or anything like that right now. What were saying is, victims are casualties of this incident. Thats all were saying right now. 6 to 10, does that sound right . What senator nelson said i cannot answer to. How many are missing . We dont know that. The people taken to the hospital, what condition are they in . The Fire Department transported them. Theyre not saying. Theyre not confirming anything. Its a tragedy. A collapsed building. We know at minimum a lot of serious injuries. Is there a representative of the Construction Company here . They do a lot of business with the county, has over the years. Can you tell us other projects at the moment mtm is working on with the county . I have no clue. We need to stick to we need to focus in on the tragedy that occurred here. Not look so much ahead or behind. Get us get through this point. Well have further press conferences. What are we talking about . Like a week, a month . Thats undeterminable at this time. Its obvious as i stated earlier for the public to avoid traveling on southwest eighth street and 107th avenue and 117th avenue indefinitely. This will be a long arduous process. We ask for the medias assistance getting the word out. We ask for the publics assistance adhering to that. Were going to spanish now. Shepard familiarly, well return to Spanish Language. We learned a few things here. Dont try not to be confused. The confirmations from the florida Highway Patrol are official. They told fox news directly, theres multiple deaths and multiple injuries. We know of five taken to kendall down south, a hospital there, which is in southwest miamidade. Another taken to Jackson Memorial medical center, in the center of town, a trauma unit there. The question now is about those that may or clearly are underneath that bridge in those vehicles. You heard the authorities on scene say that not only that they cant say for push consumption at the moment but they dont know how many people underneath there. They dont have a way to get there yet. They dont know how many people are in each of the vehicles. They have told us they believe theres eight vehicles underneath the bridge. But they dont know again, this bridge is on southwest eighth street, which is the same as highway 41, which is the same as the tamiami trail. Its a major highway that runs all the way across the Florida Everglades and all the way to collier county, which is naples, all of that area, the everglades city. So it goes across that. This is an enormous highway and in the city here, the western side of the city of miami. The degree we dont know the magnitude of this. We were talking with leonette asado that observes a restaurant called the green chicken. You explained before the news confroerence that you heard the need and ran over there. I was curious to know what you saw in the early going. We heard the noise. My husband and i and a worker started running that way. Begging everybody in their course to come help. We had got to the bridge per se. You know, not knowing what to do when you see a bridge that way. Its about 900 tons or cars that look like sardine cans at that moment. My husband saw the one two of the construction workers were attached with their harnesses to the top of the bridge. He run hes a Miamidade Police officer. So he has experience with cpr. He has experience with resuscitation processes. So he went to the area where they had been laying, one person dead on impact or if he passed. The other seemed like he could use some help. So he started doing cpr on that person. Like 15 minutes later, the guy came and transported him to the hospital. This is a moment of chaos. Youre passing by in front of the bridge and you see three cars that are completely crushed under this bridge. All youre thinking is there someone that you can help. I went on the other side, that was somewhat lifted because the part that is most destroyed is the northern part of the bridge. The other one is still standing. So i went and there was a car completely crushed on the front part. Its very safe to assume unfortunately that the driver and the copilot were both crushed completely. There was this boy in the back of the car full of bleed and just begging for someone to help him. Thats something that im not going to get out of my head. Im a mother of kids. I see that boy with his hand out the window just crying for help. The Police Officers arrived. They said they couldnt i couldnt be under the bridge to help this person. Its insane, you see a person asking for help and the person is full of blood and you know whoever in front of him could be his family and hes basically asking please save me. I cant do anything. No one can do anything. Of course, everybody is has to think of safety. If i go under that bridge and somebody else happens to me, its another casualty. But its just insane. A feeling that you cant get out of your head, knowing theres a person in the car asking for help and you cant do anything for that person. So i have to move from under the bridge. I do not believe any of the cars that were under the bridge would have any survivors. I dont see how that can happen. The cars, if you see them from in front of you, you can see like a cocacola can and throwing a 57 pound rock on the cocacola can and it becomes nothing. Thats what you can see. The cars are nothing. Its a feeling of being powerless. Not knowing what will happen to whoever is maybe on the other car. I was on the east north side of the bridge. I was able to go across to the southwest side of the bridge. Two seconds basically. They said if i stayed, i wouldnt cross back to my side. I needed to be back on this area where i have everything. Shepard hearing your story, my heart bleeds for you. I know there are people across america thinking the same thing this moment. You just never know on a given day where youll find yourself. Today, lianet sado found herself standing beside the bridge with a little boy in the backseat, wanting to give aid, and unable to do so. Unspeakable tragedies we witness. Today another one in south florida. The west side of Miamidade County. The extent of which we do not know, even at this moment. Its 5 00 on the east coast, 2 00 p. M. On the west coast. I am Shepard Smith in new york and this is fox news channels continuing coverage of a bridge collapse in south florida. The five will be seen in a few moments. First we will not update you on the situation in south florida. Those of you who have been with us for the last couple hours know that authorities have just updated us, and we know that there are a number of vehicles trapped beneath this collapsed bridge which is at 109th avenue due west of downtown miami. Wsvn with a comprehensive update. Lets listen