All bodies believed to have been recovered from vehicles crushed under Florida bridge
Miami-Dade police said Saturday they had recovered all five bodies of people in vehicles crushed under the Miami bridge that collapsed Thursday. While they believe they have recovered all the victims -- a sixth person died at the hospital -- the search and rescue is ongoing.
Earlier Saturday, police released the names of three victims pulled from the rubble. They are 57-year-old Oswald Gonzalez, 53-year-old Alberto Arias and 60-yeaer-old Rolando Fraga Hernandez, 60. Police also released the identity of victim Navarro Brown, who died at a hospital shortly after the accident. Alexa Duran, 18, a student at FIU, was also killed, her father told CBS News.
The bridge was under construction when it collapsed onto a major highway, killing at least six people. Authorities say at least four more vehicles remain entangled in the rubble.
Miami-Dade Police Director Juan Perez said crews worked around the clock to free the two vehicles Saturday morning, CBS Miami reports. They were then transferred to flatbed tow trucks and given an escort to the Medical Examiner's Office where the bodies would be removed and positively identified. Perez said when the vehicles were freed from the debris, a moment of silence was held in honor of the lives lost.
Perez said they were attempting the simultaneous extraction of two trapped vehicles and it would take approximately 12 hours. He added that it could take longer depending on the conditions encountered by the crews.
"It's going to be a long process" to remove the remaining vehicles, Perez said, "because of the weight and size of the structure that is laying on top of these vehicles."
Investigators are still trying to determine why the bridge failed. On Friday, the Florida Department of Transportation said it had received a voicemail Tuesday from an engineer with the firm who build the bridge saying there were "cracks." "Obviously the cracking is not good and something's going to have to be, ya know, done to repair that," said the voicemail.
