they're here now and they'll use them. they have indications that there ney be somebody underneath the center section. they want to start to do their searching -- >> shepard: it's 3:00 in south florida. a disaster we're watching unfold. a pedestrian bridge at florida international university. several people are did according to the florida highway patrol. several people are injured and have made their way toward miami's level 1 trauma center. jackson memorial hospital. they earlier were announcing they want doctors to come to the scene. now they don't want that anymore. they have what they need in the early going. there were great concerns the

number of casualties could be large. they're saying if you're heading toward the area, but thank you. they have what they need. we've been listening through wsvn search in south florida. >> all right, ralph. thank you. lynn martinez joining use for this live coverage. jeff and i will be with you for a while. going to see this till the end. we want to give you an updated piece of information before we recap everything. i told you earlier miami-dade rescue was asking for additional help. this is a fluid situation. this happens in breaking news. things change. tell everybody miami-dade rescue is not requesting additional

doctors and nurses to respond. if you heard me say that, you're not being urged to go. >> shepard: lynn martinez reiterating what we said. this just in through us through the reporting of "usa today." there's seven cars underneath this bridge at this moment, including the vehicle which we saw a minute ago, which was crushed only partially. in total, seven vehicles are underneath this bridge. according to the reporting of "usa today." >> you can see orange plastic fencing on the bottom. there were plenty of cars underneath this busy roadway. eight lanes of traffic. if you have ever been in that area, you know that eighth street and tamiami is very busy. when the bridge collapsed, maybe there were no pedestrians on it

crossing. might have been construction workers on the top there. there were definitely drivers below when the bridge pancaked on top of each other. the large pieces of concrete smashing on to the vehicles below. several people are dead. one person has been transported to kendall regional medical center. this is a 950 ton span of bridge that collapsed. to the right -- to the left is ground pictures. the challenge right now to this catastrophic event is getting the 950 on the span of concrete off of the cars. the technical rescue team there has set up a command post. the mission is search and rescue to get to anybody that may be trapped underneath and get them

help that they need. >> that's why our chopper had to pull back. the noise on rotors could be creating ambient noise. helicopters have pulled back to use the devices to see if anybody is under the bridge and trying to call out for help. we talk about the structure. the pedestrian bridge designed to connect sweet water to the fiu campus. first of its kind the way it was constructed, constructed off site and brought in over the weekend. it was lifted saturday. we have rosh lowe establishing his ground picture. >> okay. this is what i was talking about. southwest eight street being closed down. you can see an active situation. you can see private ambulances down there as well as miami-dade

police. in the distance, you can see the bridge there. they have moved us back about seven or eight blocks as they are trying to get -- trying to remove the rubble. we spoke with miami-dade fire rescue. what they told me to repeat this information in case you weren't with us, they told me that they wouldn't know the totality of what is going on until they moved all of the concrete there on the ground. obviously these are anxious moments for people just arriving on the scene. we spoke with one person that said a friend called them and said that somebody was injured, extremely helpless. even firefighters to a certain extent. you can't remove all of the concrete until they can bring in

some of the heavy machinery, heavy lifting equipment to get the concrete out of there. we have public information officers from miami-dade fire rescue and miami-dade police on route to the scene at an area that is closer on the fiu campus. in terms of numbers, they should be forthcoming soon as they can determine how many people they have underneath that bridge, if anyone. right now you can see southwest eighth street which is usually packed with traffic especially near the turnpike, shut down there as you have all of the rescue units on the scene. now the initial process begins trying to remove the rubble. >> and rosh, this was described as a level 2 meaning more than five patients they're dealing

with. is that correct? >> yes. the severity of this was increased. what we have learned in the passed in situations like this, you do want to stay away from numbers because it's very sense ty and b, you don't know. what you do know are the people that you can see that were injured and those people. you can see the apartment of ambulances that were here. hopefully you'll hear from some of the witnesses. we spoke to one witness over the phone. she was headed to class. she said it's so bizarre. at one moment you see the bridge and the next it collapses. kristin from miami-dade fire compared the rescue effort to similar of an earthquake. it's there one moment and collapses the ex-inext.

southwest eighth street is a very busy road. we can see one vehicle under the bridge. that's something else for miami-dade fire rescue to determine. >> we'll keep reporters live on the scene as we bridge you the live pictures to the left a ground picture coming from rosh or holly. to your right is an aerial view from ralph rayburn. i want to go back to ralph. ralph, have we seen any movement from the crane or the attempt to remove the large slabs of concrete? >> no, that won't be happening for a while. they're trying to assess the damages from the standpoint of initially, lynn, it's search and rescue. the term they use, "search and rescue" and then it's search and recovery after they determine

they can't render any aid. at this point, they're focusing on several small sections of what would be the westbound road at 108th and ninth avenue. they're using several listening devices provided by the technical rescue team there. >> shepard: we've been -- shepard smith in new york. we're listening to ralph rayburn in the chopper there. we have a number of different news organizations with whom we work there. the picture is worse than the pictures tell. there's multiple witnesses to this that have reported to local news organizations, abc news and the "miami herald" and others, in the early going when you could still see the dust rising from the collapse, that people that were there could hear screams from beneath it. more than half a dozen vehicles

are said to be crushed. they don't know how many people are under this bridge. those witnesses to this said at least in the early going, there were people had survived. there's a race to get heavy lifting equipment in and get anybody that may be trapped underneath and survived out. if you're on your phone or social media, i'm confident you can look around and find any number of casualties and injuries and dead. those numbers are not worthy of our air at this moment for we don't know the whole story. rosh low pus it as succinctly as i've heard. 5-12 have gone to local hospitals, including level one trauma center there, jackson memorial medical center. and that a number of people have

died because authorities have witnessed such and doctors have pronounced that a number of people have died. what we don't know is the extent of what is happening under the bridge. you can see there's one section that is still somewhat upright. the authorities are on scene telling the local news organizations, they're concerned this piece, too, could collapse. so they're trying to keep people away from this piece of it while trying to get heavy lifting equipment in to deal with this piece of it while at jackson memorial, other hospitals, they're treating the injured, trying to notify the next of kin or the emergency contacts of those here and a sea of people doing what they can. but so far from the looks of things, if they've been able to get heavy lifting equipment in there, it would appear at least that they haven't been able to get much of it.

they're trying against all else. we'll get it in there as quickly as they can we're relying on the coverage from wsvn 7. let's listen in. >> lifting the stricture will come in time. right now it's obviously, the assessment is there anybody left underneath there still alive. that's the number 1 consideration. that's what they're doing right now. once they make that consideration, if they establish contact, i'm sure we'll see a scurry of activity. that's not happening now. what we're seeing especially right in the dead center of the screen below the base of the red crane, there's firefighters there. one appearing to be doing manual labor. our distance does not enable us to give you any tighter picture. we're several miles away after a

consideration was given to the fact that they needed silence so they could hear any cries for help or any noises or sounds emanating from the big pile of debris. >> we do err on the side of caution when it comes to numbers. florida highway patrol are reporting several people are died. at least five vehicles were completely trapped underneath that pedestrian bridge. stay with me, ralph. just getting a statement from the construction company that constructed this pedestrian bridge that was pit in place on saturday. "our thoughts and prayers going out to everybody affected by this tragedy. the bridge collapsed and causing injuries and loss of life. unilla construction management is a family business and we're doing everything we can to assist. we'll do a full investigation to

determine what went wrong and cooperate with investigators." that statement from manilla construction management. they installed this bridge saturday. more construction to come set to start. >> and we're hearing that -- >> shepard: for location, if you were to be in downtown miami along the miami river and head west from downtown miami and head west to the tamiami trail, go 18 miles to you west and you'd run into florida international university. it's at the corner -- this particular corner is southwest eight street and the tamiami trail. so i guess you'll call it western miami-dade. it's a busy of town. an eight lane road on to which this has collapsed. here's the map of the area, florida international university.

just to the left of that, a local reporter setting up for a live report. rosh lowe on the ground there. here's the bridge collapse. you heard lynn martinez and ralph rayburn in the chopper saying they don't know if anybody is alive under the bridge. they heard screaming and what you might imagine when it first happened. whether they were able to hear anything out in is outside the bounds of what we can report. the authorities are very busy trying to rescue people and what has become a mass casualty situation in south florida. >> we're getting something off of twitter from miami-dade fire officials that more technical

resources are now on their way to the scene at fiu. we heard from ralph earlier or maybe lynn out here, can't remember, but rescue workers were asking doctors, nurses if they can head over to try to assist. on the left, live pictures of the scene now. on the right, the bridge as it was being built. >> catastrophic accident we're talking about. that's why it was earlier and still all hands on deck. doctors, nurses, paramedicparam police officers on the scene. ralph in the air. in terms of this first of its kind bridge as the investigation continues to unfold, investigators with miami fire rescue and others try to figure out what happened here, they'll

be closing closely at the construction project. a new type of concrete was used, a new installment method was used. all of those questions will come into play as this investigation continues to unfold. the urgency of the situation as ralph and rosh have mentioned is the search and rescue operation. listening devices are being implemented and used underneath the bridge right now to see if anyone is in fact still alive. the priority is to get them out safely. >> from what we understand, maybe half a dozen cars or so. it's hard to tell. this is a fluid situation. a few construction workers may have been on top of it working on it as well. so a lot of possible lives at risk as a result of this collapse. >> you can see ralph had a good

image earlier. you can see war coolers, gloves from construction workers on the top of the bridge. may have been some construction workers on the bridge when it collapsed. ralph, any word if there were any construction workers injured? >> no, we can't speak to that we understand they did a head count and have accounted for all of the construction workers that were in the area. they assemble them all. you can see the upper left-hand corner in the orange skirts. the majority of the crew arriving on the scene. unsafe structures representatives are here along with the building department folks that have responded out here. they've been in the center of the screen, all the blue shirts there. a smaller crane -- i don't know if you can make it out -- dead

center in the middle of the screen, the wide door, one of the control modules for that crane. it pulled in, came down to roadway here from the west side traveling east and has pulled up to the west side of the collapse. it's a lifting crane. our understanding is it's being brought in for a stand by position in case they need it to lift concrete out of the way. the miami-dade technical team is here. they're in the process of going from one side of the accident to the other. they've had several firefighters cram bell to get a quick look underneath to try to render aid if necessary. as indicateder he -- indicated

earlier, they want to assess the situation and see if anybody is alive, is there a rescue or is this a recovery process. the bridge came crossing down here, two tiers of it. the walk itself and then the structure above it came down, pancaked on top of a number of vehicles traveling in the area there. some folks were able to scramble out of their vehicles. miraculously we saw in some of our video a couple cars where concrete came down on the hood. did not make egress into the cabin of the vehicle so the front windshield was intact and the doors were open and appeared that the people got out. there were several people of what the fire department called walking wounded with minor bumps

and bruises. five people transported to kendall regional medical center with injuries including one trauma alert. that's where they have life threatening injuries or severe injuries. they notified the department there that that's where they were going to be taking that particular victim. of course we heard there was one person diseased in a vehicle that was clearly visible. we believe that's where the yellow tarp was set up in ten lanes. now we're hearing there were several other fatalities. we're waiting to get more information. fire rescue did an assessment. we spoke about who is here and who they were doing. they've don an accounting and most of the construction workers have been accounted for. they found another victim that self-extricated himself from the accident and ran as it came tumbling down in the parking garage on the right side of the

screen. didn't want to go off too far. the parking garage there and tweeted and he's in good condition. that's the latest as far as the information goes as to what is happening right now at this construction accident. >> shepard: ralph rayburn reporting from sky fox. very near the scene. i want to give you context. this university is in an area of town called sweetwater. right off the tamiami park. tamiami park, a place where they have sports parks, year-round swimming pool, batting cages there. they mentioned that some of the injured went to kendall hospital which is due south along the florida turnpike or the ronald reagan turnpike.

those that weren't severely injured were taken to kendall. has rebuild since hurricane andrew and is a booming and bustling area. this part of town on a thursday afternoon approaching half passed 3:00 would be extremely busy with eight lanes of traffic. we've gotten word from the construction company, you heard locals talk about this bridge had just been completed. not officially open to pedestrian traffic there at florida international university in sweet water. not officially open yet. there may have been construction workers on scene. lots of vehicular traffic beneath it when this happened. the construction crew sent out a statement saying our thoughts and prayer goes out to everyone affected by this terrible tragedy. the new university bridge was under construction and experienced a catastrophic collapse caused injuries and loss of life. the name of the company is mcm

or munilla construction. we'll conduct a full investigation and determine what went wrong and cooperate with investigators on the scene. rosh lowe reporting live. let's listen. >> we ran to the name of a nan named ariel valdez. he said a friend was under the bridge and may have been injured. this is a large part of the story right now. a lot of people, especially when they're hearing the news of this, that they're full of anxiety and apprehension, not knowing if their loved ones were underneath the bridge. we have the interview now if we can go to that. >> my friend's sister called me. my childhood friend was crossing as the bridge was coming down. it hit him. >> you know how he is doing?

>> i don't know. i don't know. he was rushed to the hospital. i don't know. i'm just so worried. >> what is the person's name? >> i don't want to say that right now. his mom is in another country. i can't release that. i'm sorry. >> so tell me what you know what happened. >> he was crossing the street at the moment the bridge was coming down. i don't know. he was severely injured. >> and you got a phone call from who? >> his sister. she said he was injured and rushed to the hospital. >> you got a really good idea what people are going through. that interview was shot by our chief photographer when he arrived just moments really, 10-15 minutes after this bridge here behind me collapsed. mario was on the scene hear

getting information that one of his friends was injured, a childhood friend. that is only one of the stories. i wanted to bring that to you because i would imagine there's a lot of people going through that right now when they're getting calls or information from friends that perhaps they were in the car underneath the bridge, perhaps walking near the bridge. it's important to stress that until that rubble and the concrete is removed from that area, we won't know the full extent of the damages here or the injuries here. all we do know and we mentioned, they called it a level 2 incident which is very generic. they call it a serious situation. you can see that. you heard it in the short

interview that captured for the people out here on the school's campus what they are going through right now. especially those that have been impacted, those that have been affected by this. in a scene like this, you can so understand, this will take quite some time. we saw the big excavators run the plough through here, down the middle of southwest eighth street as they have will left up all of that concrete, lift up all of the debris from that bridge. the bridge was just put in. everybody was excited about the bridge. we were there when it was the grand opening of sorts. then this happened out of absolutely nowhere. you talk about the fragility of

life. think about the people that were just driving down southwest eighth street or if that is mario's friends, someone just walking. all of a sudden this large bridge comes crashing down. >> now they have to deal with this like they have to deal with an earthquake. the big machinery, the big equipment and remove everything. mario brought up a good point. in these situations, they have to notify next of kin. the process has not started yet. we're at the very initial stages of this entire process. this isn't something where they can come on the scene and quickly determine how many injuries they have because there's a great unknown here. so if you are watching this and you are concerned, you heard from miami-dade fire rescue, that is the process here where they simply have to sift through all of this and take their time

and be careful until they know the extend of what happened out here. back to you >> shepard: rosh lowe reported on the ground. on the line, shepard smith in new york. on the line with us is jose diaz, miami-dade county commissioner. he's been talking with law enforcement to get updates. sir, what can you tell us? >> i can tell you, i'm devastated as everybody that is there, seeing this horrific disaster that has taken place, something so positive, something we were all celebrating. basically something that was supposed to make sure that we saved lives. the student cross cross the wide eighth street and be safe in crossing. we worked years very hard to get the funding to have this built

and to see the devastation is a horrific moment for everybody involved. >> shepard: we're going to put a photo on the screen. this is from the inauguration of the bridge when they broke the ribbon there to open it. you've been pushing for the funding for years. you have said the technology is supposed to be new and cutting edge, correct? >> that is the way that i've been told, the latest of technology that has been used on the bridge to really emphasize the use of the megastructures. we're told this is the best of the best. something must have gone wrong obviously. like everybody else, we're taken

back that something lake this would take place. it was a great moment to see that bridge get placed. it was save lives for students or the residents of sweetwater crossing it. i was very involved in getting the financing for this, the design and the university and everybody working to get the best that they could for the residents and that go to fiu. >> shepard: were there any concerns, commissioner, along the way that for cost or whatever, whatever, were there concerns about the construction types and installation process that was underway? was it controversial at all? >> no. the opposite.

everybody was amaze. there were self-cleaning systems, the structure put in place, that i soak with my colleague, commissioner martinez in the area. i was able to speak with the mayor, law enforcement, fire, everybody involved. everybody was taken back that something like this could take place. they built something that was supposed to be leading in technology. that's the way we look at it. i'm sure there will be team to look at what went wrong. right now we have to see if there's people still alive and help the first responders, to see if there is somebody alive that they can get them out. that's where our prayers are

right now. to make sure whoever is under the bridge can be safe. >> commissioner diaz of district 12 there in miami-dade serves doral, sweetwater, hialeah gardens and the rest. these are your folks and we're so sorry for the members of your community. thank you for being here. >> thank you, shepard. >> shepard: commissioner diaz witnessing an unthinkable -- imagine representing the district in a sprawling county with frankly governmental concerns over the years. it's not been the smoothest running of places quite on the earth. that the community and the university is closely tied in

miami-dade. there was this enormous barrier, this eight lane road that separated the university from the community. dream is sweetwater and fiu could be physically connected the way they are economically and socially. the enormous enjoy for the area, fiu and to put the community and the university together with a bridge was a years long dream. finally came to fruition saturday. really not even open to pedestrian traffic yet and now this disaster. two hours ago, the bridge collapsed. the cars are trapped beneath. trace gallagher with more. >> you talk the connection to sweetwater and fiu. there's 4,000 students that

leave in sweetwater. for years and years, they have said we need the pedestrian bridge because it's not safe. you have 4,000 kids per day going across tamiami. several years ago, a 18-year-old student was killed. we're not saying that was the motivation for building the bridge but clearly one of the reasons why they did this. this thing wasn't supposed to be finished until february of next year. it was actually put in place almost a year ahead of time. you talked about the construction company. the design of the bridge, is same people that designed the sky way in tampa, the famous bridge and the bridge over the charles river in boston. a very well-known engineering firm behind this. of course, that's the goal, is to get engineers, the people that design this on scene right now to make sure who happens if the other side collapses and to figure out what they can do to

mitigate the concerns. this thing was sun 74 feet long and 40 feet wide. the big description, it was more than a bridge. it was supposed to have park benches, wi fi stations on the ends of each side so students can congregate there. you're talking about thousands going back and forth. when the vision was laid out, the idea was, he said a bridge between fiu and sweetwater, that's what he meant. this was supposed to be a gathering area, not just a facilitation system to get people from one side to the other but to create a community feel between sweetwater and the university that has been so closely tied for years. this was about safety from the beginning and now have the exact

opposite. right now you've got this feel where when the engineers get on scene, the cranes are there. the problem is, they want to make sure nobody is left inside, that nobody is in a precarious position before they go forward with any type of heavy equipment at all. the ntsb is hahn scene or will shortly be on scene and they will be in charge of the investigation going forward. shep? >> shepard: trace gallagher, thanks so much, this uniting bridge and all that trace just described and now on the wsvn feed, to see if there's authorities underneath it and to get this reporting from the "miami herald" quoting now, monica madden who says that family and friends of the injuries or killed are being gathered inside an unknown classroom at florida international university where

they will meet with police chaplains. we don't know the extent of the death and injuries. we cannot know it yet. we're waiting to find out more from 30s. they work to see who pay be under there and how bad this may be. cbsn, the digital network, is quoting some locals there. i want to pace along whetherer that reporting. "me and my boyfriend had just driven under the bridge" said a witness. bella carasso. "we commented on how new it was. we heard a loud bang. first we thought we hit something. we looked around and realized the bridge had collapsed on multiple cars. i didn't see any pedestrians walking on the bridge. when we looked around, we saw it was much, much worse." so many people go through this intersection every day. ralph rayburn in the chopper up

above with a new report. >> the collapsed portion is complete or if there's any shifting of debris, if they move one piece of concrete, is something else going to fall. they take it tentatively. they're experienced in doing this and they do this, the technical rescue guys, travel all over the world to do training on job and assist where their help is needed and where you have natural disasters, earthquakes, mudslides, all of these kind of incidents that happen around the world. so again, kind of an oddity for us in south florida. but the training here is paramount and of course the first responders were here very quickly as we mentioned earlier. a very good sign of administering aid and getting folks that needed to get to the hospital as quick as possible.

>> shepard: ralph rayburn reporting from the chopper, this just in. steve joaquin that just sent to me this bit of information. this bridge was designed to withstand a category five hurricane. the idea behind this bridge was should the biggest of all storms, an andrew-style storm come roaring into south florida, this pedestrian bridge would survive. "the new pedestrian bridge is post tensioned to achieve a design life that exceeds 100 years". instead, just days after the opening, the collapse in south miami-dade county. new bits of information just coming in. the national transportation safety board has just announced that it will be sending a team to investigate this. the ntsb says stand by for more

information. governor rick scott enroute to the scene in west enmiami-dade. the miami-dade mayor, carlos jimenez during a phoner with cbs miami said he's not there, but traveling out of town. he says he's in touch but does give us this information from his office. what we know now is six people have been taken away. one in cardiac arrest. and underneath this bridge right now, according to the miami mayor, there are eight vehicles. a statement now on the pedestrian bridge collapse again from the mayor. i have received news about the fiu pedestrian bridge collapse and i'm actively monitoring this. he goes on to say i have dispatched the deputy mayor. he says i will continue to monitor. thoughts and prayers for the people affected by this tragedy and first responders working so hard on the scene. the miami mayor says eight cars are trapped underneath. in addition, marco rubio, the florida senator, says he just spoke with elaine chao, sec

elaine chao on his way to fiu where he's been an adjust professor for ten years. the eighth street is heavily used by many people in miami. he says this is such a horrible tragedy. let's continue to listen. rosh rowe reporting live on the ground. >> to help alleviate the situation, to get the large blocks of concrete. that is one of the excavators moving through there, probably going to off load it and go in there, piece by piece and try to move the rubble away. try to figure out who is trapped underneath. i want to give you the live pictures. miami-dade fire rescue saying they're going to be bringing in more heavy equipment down here

to the collapsed bridge next to fiu. i wanted to give you a live picture of what the heavy equipment looks like on your screen right now. several trucks moving in here. we also saw k-9 units coming down here. we saw from broward county, from their fire rescue. we saw k-9 units coming down to help this process. as was pointed out, this is a very tricky situation on a number of fronts. they have to be concerned and take every precaution for firefighter safety. this is an unsettled situation. the first priority is to make sure everybody is safe going into that debris. to make sure the people operating the excavator, the firefighters, fire rescue, law enforcement, that they're safe there. you can see down the right here

on southwest eighth street which is still shut down, you can see the precarious nature of the bridge. we haven't heard from anybody yet on the ground here. just about the structural safety at this point of that bridge. it's on a decline down there. so they have to make sure that everything is secure there and safe to go in there with the heavy equipment, remove all of the concrete and try to get to -- try to get to anyone if in fact there is anyone that is beneath that bridge right now. that's the beginning process of some of the heavy equipment starting to roll in here now. >> shepard: rosh lowe talking to the local anchors. and an unfolding situation with news that is still developing and the hope that someone against odds is alive under that bridge and this brand new equipment that they just brought in to try to remove the bridge,

being used to save lives hopefully minutes from now. as a result, our coverage will continue live on fox news channel across the country around around the world through the facilities of wsvn. that will happen after a quick commercial break. ook safe... and made it daring. we took intelligent, and made it utterly irresistible. we took the most advanced e-class ever and made the most exciting e-class ever. the 2018 e-class coupe and sedan. from mercedes-benz. the best or nothing.

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reduce hunger, help control cravings with contrave. now you an talk to a doctor online and get free shipping at getcontravenow.com. >> shepard: continuing coverage of a collapse in south florida. a pedestrian bridge just completed within the last week has collapsed in western miami-dade county in an around the community of sweetwater. highway 41 and the tamiami trail and 109th avenue. so western miami-dade county just west of downtown miami. probably 15 miles due west. the sprawling campus there in the city. we don't know how many people have died. the florida highway patrol confirms multiple people are dead. there's records now including from miami's new times

newspaper, which is a newspaper that has been around for quite some time a local paper that does good long form journalism there, and it is reporting now two of the biggest firms that build the florida international bridge have been accused of unsafe practices. one of those case, another bridge project collapsed and fell on the workers. it's munilla construction management, a south florida firm that won a competitive bid to build the new bridge, which is part of a $14.2 million project funded by the u.s. department of transportation. they beat out other finalists. this group partnered with fig bridge group that has worked on iconic projects like the sunshine sky way. if you have ever seen a picture from tampa, you've seen this passive bridge that is beautiful

to look at and an iconic landmark of tampa. so there's controversy surrounding the company. and imagine being there when this thing collapsed. seeing it and realizing there were people trapped. jose was and is live with us on the phone now. jose, thank you. >> hi, shepard, how are you today? >> i'm okay. how are you? >> i'm okay. i was with officials and top police command. we were volunteering coffee. we were having a good conversation about the unveiling this saturday at 4:00. we were talking about a successful process and voicing the accomplishment. i we heard a bang.

i turned and i look and i said this can't be. this can't be. the bridge. he says no, the bridge. one of the officers runs to get the radio. he runs back out and he said the bridge, the bridge. i'm literally 300 feet away. and i'm seeing what looks as the bridge not having the same design as it had. it was discombobulated. so i run. the scene that i saw, the pictures that i have, over 20 cars under the bridge. you can't even see the tires. squished. i run and i see a hand -- >> shepard: excuse me. jose. how sure are you of that, 20 vehicles underneath? >> from the pictures that i have -- >> shepard: pictures that you took? >> yes. nine cars and there's still cars behind those same cares. so let's play it on the safe

side. 9, 9, 18 cars. >> shepard: this were people in those vehicles. >> yes. stopped at the light. there's a light under that bridge. they didn't know what was going to hit them. >> shepard: so there's a light there. that's when the bridge collapsed? >> yes, sir. what caused that bridge -- i'm glad you spoke about it, the munilla management company. i was there in the unveiling. the bridger, very cocky when they put it up. >> shepard: since we don't know what happened here, i'd really -- i appreciate what you're saying and i respect your opinion but since we don't know what happened to feel like casting stones may be a matter for a later time. before you came on the air with me, you spoke with one of my information specialists. and i understand you told her that you believed something in

particular caused this. >> from the crane. yes. >> shepard: tell me that story. >> they moved the crane before all the officers got there. they moved the crane. i saw it. a piece of that crane, they were tightening the cables. a piece of equipment fell on the far right side of the bridge. you can see the far left side tilted up. it could hold what fell. it chanced. that's what caused that collapse. the tightening of the cables in rush hour and that piece of equipment falling on the bridge. that's what caused that collapse. >> shepard: you walked up to the bridge, right? >> yes. >> shepard: describe that process and what you saw. >> it was chaotic. everybody was running. how i could best explain it, i was not present during 9/11, but the unaring, the midst of that, not knowing what's going on, but they want to get away and all that, that's what i was

experiencing. the only distinction, i wanted to get to the core of the issue and i didn't realize how much of a disaster it was until i saw that with my eyes. >> shepard: jose, we're going to bet some of your pictures up so our viewers can see what you saw, this is when you came up. we can see towering over this now, the first rescue workers are there. we the see the red car in the near ground and the crane in the background. >> yes. there's a crane there that they moved. a crane there. >> another one. >> the one in the foreground. maybe black. >> yes. that one was holding something. you can see the hook. the hook is halfway. it snapped. something was holding -- the hook was holding the equipment that fell on the bridge. that's what caused the collapse. >> shepard: i don't know if our viewers -- beneath this bridge

you'll see the front end of a very i have and another car next to it and another car next to it and this red vehicle. >> the guy in the red vehicle, i thought i could get him out. i couldn't do anything. he was under the bridge. it was horrible. >> shepard: i want to show -- this is another of your photographs that we've just taken from your twitter feet. we thank you for that. this is the picture where it appears to have snapped, the green crane is above? >> yes. there's a clip. there's like a hook. a line from the crane -- >> shepard: that's the previous photo. go back to the previous photo. i think many of our viewers -- we can see this line. right of center above the green crane, what appears to be a cable of some sort. >> thank you. that was holding that blue

equipment on the right side which caused the collapse. the whole left side couldn't hold that much pressure. so it collapsed. >> shepard: jose, must have been another worldly thing to be around at the time. >> i'm still shocked. i'm still shocked. i am. i really am. >> shepard: jose majia who is on scene or was at least in the very beginning. there's the -- that's the -- this is the green crane. the top of your spotlight, you can see that cable dangling there from the black crane to the left. that's the one that jose is talking about. we cannot know what happened here. as you know, with any breaking news situation, the first records are sometimes completely inaccurate. sometimes they're right on point. but the thing that is certainly most disturbing is the thought

of this bridge being 40 feet wide. you can see the traffic light in the foreground there. go to the wsvn picture. the live aerials from the air. in the near ground, you can see the traffic light. jose said the light was rid and the cars were stopped underneath, this is 40 feet white. somewhere around 18 cars that are pancaked underneath that bridge that could mean just -- just perish the thought and prayers for those that are there and condolences for their family members after frightening thing to see. again, from monique madden who has been reporting, a verified account there, reporting that katrina calizzo was at the red

light. she felt small crocks falling. she turn around and the car was smashed. the car behind her was buried. she was in one of those that is crashed, that is smushed right there beneath that bridge. we have a fantastic local news station there as well as a bureau for the fox news channel. phil keating is live on scene. as horrible as this is all right, the thought of what is happening under that bridge is really debilitating. >> yeah, heart brebreaking. here in the western part of the metropolitan area. this is a massively busy street.

the bridge that was constructed elsewhere was assembled and put it in place on saturday as we've mentioned. ever since then, traffic has been flowing eastbound and westbound here on southwest eighth street, the tamiami trail. the bridge was supposed to open officially for pedestrian traffic this upcoming week. you can see the bridge of the bridge that is not pancaked, not flattened down. it's angled up at 40 degrees. to the left of that, looking south, this is the edge of the fiu campus, florida international university. this pedestrian bridge was to span the eight lanes of very busy traffic southwest eighth street and over to the north side, which is now the town of sweetwater. you can see the new dorm, that very tall 12 or 15 story dorm there. that is part of the reason. there's thousands of students

that attend fiu that live on the north side of this major boulevard, the thoroughfare here and that was why everybody was so excited about the pedestrian bridge. state of the art. whatever happened, it's obviously a catastrophic event with serious integrity issues to explain. >> shepard: it's 4:00 on the east coast. 1:00 p.m. on the west coast. i'm shepard smith in north. this is fox news channel's continuing coverage of a bridge collapse in southeast florida. it happened two hours ago. rosh lowe is interviewing one on scene at the time. getting a first hand account of what happened. >> a 950 ton section of a pedestrian bridge coming down. >> rosh's spanish is fluent and