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Survivor Of FIU Bridge Collapse Sues Design-Construction Firms

Pedro Portal
/
Miami Herald
Six people died in the collapse of the FIU pedestrian bridge, including motorists, passengers and one construction worker

Two days after the last victim’s body was removed from a collapsed bridge near Florida International University, the first civil lawsuit stemming from the tragedy has been filed — and it claims reckless negligence on the part of the companies who oversaw the bridge’s design and construction.

Marquise Rashaad Hepburn, a 24-year-old resident of Miami-Dade County, was “seriously injured” on his way to work as he rode his bicycle underneath the pedestrian bridge spanning Southwest Eighth Street near the West Miami-Dade campus of Florida International University, according to a formal complaint filed Monday morning in Miami-Dade circuit court.

Following a stress-test of the bridge, which had sustained cracking days before, the massive, 174-foot concrete slab came crashing down just before 2 p.m. on Thursday. The eight-lane segment of the Tamiami Trail below remained open during the testing.

The driver of a car trying to avoid falling concrete swerved into Hepburn on the southern end of the span. Hepburn survived the crash and the collapse, but was hospitalized with undisclosed injuries.

Read more at our news partner, the Miami Herald

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