because i m actually moving locations trying to get closer to the scene. but the roads are blocked off. this is a very it is a main road. it is a very traffic traveled road, i don t live tootoo far from here and i got several calls asking if i was okay. and contacted people to see if they were okay. but very concerning because seeing those images of the vehicles squished with a bridge on top of them and you can t identify the cars. it is obviously very worrisome and so i could here there are many people concerned standing around trying to know what is going on and who is under that bridge. laura, you were one of the first people on the scene not already there when the bridge collapsed. what is your sense of the number of cars that are trapped under there and have you seen them extract anybody? i personally haven t. so this happened on 109th avenue and the closest i could get was
and fiu is a campus is grown in the last few decades. so a lot more foot traffic than there used to be. this is also near the site of the miami-dade youth fair which is underway right now. so a very busy, busy area. and as florida highway patrol said, there are people kraca trapped and a rescue effort to figure out the except of the damage. but many roads are blocked off and emergency vehicles still arriving at the scene. trying to find the best advantage point we can but it is obviously still very active scene. a lot of shock this would happen several days after this bridge was installed. are you close enough to be able to see what is happening in terms of rescue efforts? we ve got various shots that we keep seeing of rescue workers. but we see cars fully trapped underneath this bridge. we were we were able to arrive on the east side of the building or southwest eighth
happen. and although it is traumatizing, i think you wonder and ask yourself, could this have been avoided and i think it is just something that unfortunately it happens. thank you so much. we appreciate you talking to us. thank you. and explaining what you saw. and there you have it. just a chaotic situation. we ve been talking about this out here in miami for quite a bit. because again this bridge was sort of brought out here with such fanfare and such high hopes and then to have something like this happen just a complete shock to everyone who is out here today. mia, thank you very much. mia rodriguez on the scene for us with gabe guiterrez. this is a bridge that was built using accelerated bridge construction techniques and we ll talk more about that. but to washington for a moment. the white house press briefing is underway with sarah huckabee-sanders. let s listen in. as we ve said, we ll have conversations with specific countries but the decision will ultimately be ma
with the last ten says or so. there were a lot of dignity airs because the bridge was swung into place. that is how it is described. it was not open. it would be open next year in part because the construction site is where they are putting up some additional student apartments and some businesses and there will be more pedestrians in this area which is again why they thought it was so important to have a pedestrian bridge in this particular location. but again, just before 2:00 p.m. today, you had that collapse. and this is a very, very busy road. why traffic was not stopped, while they were working on it, it is not clear at this point. but there would have been a lot of traffic. again because there is a major interchange, at the florida turnpike where it meets eighth street and people are coming on and off the highway going to the campus, whether they are heading to miami or west toward the turnpike. so again, a lot of questions out here about how this happened, what were they doing
the university had pushed for the construction of this bridge to safely be able to move students and faculty across that major thoroughfare from this city of the city of sweet water to the you ve and just a few days ago they swing it into place. that is how it is being described and they were looking forward to opening it up officially next year for use. the construction site that you see behind me, not necessarily related to the bridge. but they are going to be building some student housing and other things here which was part of the reason why they wanted this bridge in place before that happened. again in order to be able to move people from one side of the road to the other. but we ve had this tragedy out here today. a lot of questions why wasn t the road shut down. if they were in fact working on the bridge at that time. and was there some kind of structural deficiency involved in all of this. so to be clear, mia, the bridge for the use of pedestrians was not open yet? reporte