Bridge collapse: Seconds separated those who lived and died
They had just finished up lunch, and set off to run a humdrum errand: a drive to the travel agency to pick up airline tickets for their annual visit to their beloved homeland Cuba.
Osvaldo Gonzalez and Alberto Arias, friends and business partners, happened to pass under a Miami bridge that Thursday afternoon, the road bustling with fellow drivers also out on the most ordinary and unthreatening of life's tasks.
A teenager was driving her friend to the doctor's office to pick up some medicine. A father of three was heading home from work. A woman on her way to a nail salon was stopped at a red light. Seconds — inches — would soon separate those who would live from those who wouldn't.
Sweetwater police Detective Juan Llera was at his office a few blocks away, when he heard what he thought was a bomb exploding....
The Miami Herald reported, "A pedestrian bridge under construction collapsed Thursday, just days after crews had dropped an elevated 950-ton span in place on a signature project that was intended to give Florida International University students a safe route across the busy roadway."
The $14 million project was partly federally funded through Obama's Tiger program (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery).Christian Britschgi at Reason magazine wrote, "On 2013, the FIU was awarded $11.4 million in TIGER money for its University City Prosperity Project, which included the pedestrian bridge. Some 52 projects were awarded $458 million in that round of TIGER grants—known as TIGER V—using methodology that was later criticized by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) for violating DOT's own standards."
He quoted Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz gushing over the project in 2013.
She said, "More jobs will be created in our community thanks to this grant, and I look forward to celebrating the project's success with everyone in South Florida."
Jiminy Clickit rides again! Next he'll be telling us that the bridge's collapse was a tragic byproduct of the lack of universal healthcare and that it was directly attributable to white evangelicals and KJV-Onlyists.
Matt Dixon wrote: The Scott administration quickly worked to distance itself from the collapse of a Florida International University pedestrian bridge that left six dead, but documents from the state’s transportation department and the university paint a different picture.
From the selection of the politically powerful firm that led the project to the days leading up to the collapse, the Florida Department of Transportation, overseen by Gov. Rick Scott, had direct involvement in a project whose collapse has rocked South Florida and sparked a federal investigation....
--[URL=http://tinyurl.com/y84dvh3b]]]http://tinyurl.com/y84dvh3b (Documents: Scott administration had long-running role in collapsed FIU bridge)[/URL]
When the dust settles from the lawsuits and the federal investigation, it will be interesting to see who is held responsible?
John Yurich USA wrote: Concrete is not high quality like it used to be years ago.
JY
You are quite the funny one. And, you’ll get a lot of responses from your left hand. Keep antagonizing the posters. I enjoy it much because when it comes to our relationship with the living God, it makes responders think about whether or not they are anchored in the truth of God’s Word.
The one thing I won’t like is that some (I can’t demean anyone) will discuss the quality of concrete for days, if not months.
------- Teaching students with bridge and railway majors. Rumor has it they used Chinese contractors to make it. Just yesterday almost had a fire when the peasant repairman tried to fix the lights. Apparently forgot to turn off the power and a quick fireball poofed in his face. Later the glass from the lights fell and shattered everywhere, then some more, then he was bleeding. Then he left.
We don't know what today has instored, as tomorrow isn't owed or guaranteed to us, but praise the Lord that we can seek His Kingdom. May hearts & minds be renewed through what Only Christ can do one for One Alone amen.
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. James 4:13-14
Christopher, thank you, I always appreciate posts with exhortation.
1 Thessalonians 4:1 KJV (1) Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more.
Hebrews 3:13 KJV (13) But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
I just finished reading through the rest of the article which put faces and personalities to those killed, and those who just missed their lives being snuffed out that day. Hard to imagine what loved ones are experiencing, especially during those terrible days following as rescue teams tried to get to those under the concrete and steel. I had heard that one of the structural engineers had left a voicemail warning of a crack spotted in the concrete, but the voicemail went unnoticed, supposedly, until after the bridges collapse. I can't help but wonder if that one voicemail would have prevented the lives being lost. Just like most of us, they all thought they had their entire lives ahead of them, and now they're gone. Any one of us could be gone today, and this sort of thing is on my mind, more and more, and each time I hear or read of some tragic ending. Today could be my last...am I right with God? Have I done my best? Does my heart have ugliness lurking within? Does God get my full attention, and is He my priority each and every day? Do I live in obediance, to the best of my ability, each day? Do I hate, am I bitter, unrepentant, or unforgiving? Am I proud, haughty, a backbiter, vindictive, or condescending? Will I hear, "Well done, good and faithful servant?"
John UK wrote: A lot of things being built today are nowhere near as solid as those built years ago. Life now is geared up to speed rather than quality and solidity. Look at the early Bibles, still going strong while most modern Bibles bite the dust just as soon as they have made the publisher a few extra dollars.
Sad to compare the Telford Iron Bridge to Telford collapse (the great Iron Bridge vs fruit of bureaucratic managerialism.)
Thomas Telford became the greatest civil engineer of his time, the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. The innumerable roads, bridges, and canals he built were the foundation for Britain‘s—and therefore the world‘s—Industrial Revolution. -- Hundreds of children, some as young as 11, are estimated to have been drugged, beaten and raped over a 40-year period in the town of Telford.
Lucy Allan, the Conservative MP for Telford, has called for an inquiry into child sexual exploitation, saying the latest reports were "extremely serious and shocking". She has previously called for a "Rotherham-style inquiry" into the allegations.
A lot of things being built today are nowhere near as solid as those built years ago. Life now is geared up to speed rather than quality and solidity. Look at the early Bibles, still going strong while most modern Bibles bite the dust just as soon as they have made the publisher a few extra dollars.
Dr. David P Murray | 5/6/2012
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