Among those suing the firms involved in the deadly collapse of the pedestrian bridge near Florida International University is Richard Humble, who told his story to the media Monday.
He was in a car with his friend, Alexa Duran, when the bridge fell March 15, killing her and injuring him.
“It was awful because I just saw the bridge coming down on top of us,” Humble told the media, according to this report by WSVN-TV.
Five other people were also killed in the bridge failure, which occurred about 1:30 p.m. as drivers stopped for a red light on a busy state road.
Humble sat next to his attorney in West Miami-Dade, Florida, as he discussed the bridge collapse and his lawsuit against FIGG Bridge Engineers, Munilla Construction Managment and five other companies involved in the bridge construction.
He also expressed intentions to sue the university and state of Florida.
The NTSB has confirmed that workers were adjusting tension rods on the new bridge when it collapsed, just five days after the main span of the 174-foot bridge was hoisted into place during accelerated construction.
The engineer, W. Denney Pate with FIGG Bridge Engineers, had reported cracking on the north end of the span two days before the collapse. He left a voicemail with the Florida Department of Transportation that was not heard until after the collapse.
And only three and a half hours before the catastrophic failure, a meeting about the cracking was held at the construction site. FIU released this statement regarding that:
“On Thursday morning (March 15, 2018), at 9:00 a.m., the Design Build Team of MCM and FIGG convened a meeting at the MCM trailer, located on the construction site, to discuss a crack that appeared on the structure.
“The FIGG engineer of record delivered a technical presentation regarding the crack and concluded that there were no safety concerns and the crack did not compromise the structural integrity of the bridge. This meeting lasted approximately two hours and included FIU and FDOT representatives.”
Humble’s attorney, Stuart Grossman, told reporters that they hope their actions can prevent a catastrophic event like this from happening again.
“The public deserves to know, what is it about this process that when we go to build a bridge at a college, it kills people,” the attorney says.
