Orlando attorney Matt Morgan plans to file suit over FIU bridge collapse

MIAMI, Fla. — Orlando attorney Matt Morgan announced plans to file a civil lawsuit Monday morning related to the collapse of the newly constructed pedestrian bridge at Florida International University.

The lawsuit was filed Monday in Miami-Dade Circuit Court on behalf of Marquise Rashaad Hepburn. He was seriously injured as he rode a bicycle under the bridge as it collapsed last week.

The lawsuit says a car swerving to avoid the falling concrete struck Hepburn.

One of Hepburn's attorneys, Keith Mitnik, said Hepburn was on his way to work when the bridge fell.

The negligence lawsuit seeks unspecified damages from the entities involved in building the bridge, including Munilla Construction Management and FIGG Bridge Engineers. Both companies say they would cooperate with multiple investigations into the collapse.

The lawsuit said cracks in the span should have been taken seriously and traffic should have been diverted during any testing.

Gov. Rick Scott on Monday directed Florida's Department of Transportation to withhold payments of over $13.6 million in federal funding for the collapsed bridge, pending the completion of a National Transportation Safety Board investigation.

"Before another dollar is spent on this bridge, we must know exactly what happened," Scott said in a statement.

Students returning from spring break to FIU held a moment of silence Monday to honor the victims.

The last two victims of the collapse were removed from the rubble Sunday, bringing the final death toll to six, according to the Miami-Dade police chief.

Authorities released the names of four people who died from the collapse of the newly constructed pedestrian bridge at Florida International University.

Three victims -- Rolando Fraga Hernandez, Oswald Gonzalez and Alberto Arias -- were found Saturday morning after crews removed two cars from the rubble left at the scene, Miami-Dade police said Saturday afternoon.

The fourth identified victim, Navarro Brown, died at a hospital, police said.

A fifth person who died in the bridge collapse, Alexa Duran, 18, a student at Florida International University, was identified by the Miami-Dade Police Department early Sunday. Her family had already confirmed to reporters on Friday that Duran was among those killed, when the bridge 950-ton bridge collapsed on Thursday afternoon on top of at least eight cars stopped under the span waiting for a red traffic light to change.

Alexa's body was recovered about 5:12 p.m. Saturday when firefighters recovered her gray Toyota 4Runner from the rubble and found her body inside.

"Rest In Peace my sweet little sister. Words cannot describe how heavy my heart is," Alexa's sister, Dina Duran, wrote in a Instagram police on Saturday. "I would give anything to take your place and all of your pain. I will cherish every memory we've made and will miss you every day for the rest of my life. A piece of my heart is with you. Heaven is a better and funnier place with you in it. May your beautiful soul rest with the Angels my love. I will see you again soon."

Officials said at a press conference that workers were able to successfully remove two vehicles from the rubble Saturday morning.

The vehicles are being transported to the medical examiner's office.

Officials with The National Transportation Safety Board said construction workers were tightening cables on the pedestrian bridge on Thursday before the structure collapsed, killing at least six people.

And days before the collapse, a lead engineer reportedly noticed cracks in the bridge, according to the Florida Department of Transportation.

Friday night, NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt said their investigation is still in the early stages, but they know what workers were doing before the collapse. At this point, they don’t know if the work that was being done was the cause of the collapse.

“Our mission is to find out not only what happened -- we know what happened, the bridge collapsed,” he said. “We want to find out why it happened.”

On the day of the collapse, the main NTSB investigator for the said that there are 10 “diagonal members” that connect the walkway portion of the bridge to the canopy portion. He said on Thursday, construction workers were tightening cables within those diagonal supports.

“Construction crews were applying post-tensioning force that is designed to strengthen the diagonal member,” he said.

During the news conference, officials were asked about possible cracks in the structure. They said at this time, they have not confirmed that on their own.

Friday night, the Florida Department of Transportation released the transcript of a voicemail left Tuesday by the lead engineer with FIGG, the firm that designed the bridge. The engineer, Denney Pate, said there were cracks in the concrete.

“Um, so, uh, we’ve taken a look at it and, uh, obviously some repairs or whatever will have to be done but from a safety perspective we don’t see that there’s any issue there so we’re not concerned about it from that perspective although obviously the cracking is not good and something’s going to have to be, ya know, done to repair that,” Pate said.

Read the transcription of the voice mail below or click here to listen to it:

"Hey Tom, this is Denney Pate with FIGG bridge engineers. Calling to, uh, share with you some information about the FIU pedestrian bridge and some cracking that’s been observed on the north end of the span, the pylon end of that span we moved this weekend. Um, so, uh, we’ve taken a look at it and, uh, obviously some repairs or whatever will have to be done but from a safety perspective we don’t see that there’s any issue there so we’re not concerned about it from that perspective although obviously the cracking is not good and something’s going to have to be, ya know, done to repair that. At any rate, I wanted to chat with you about that because I suspect at some point that’s gonna get to your desk. So, uh, at any rate, call me back when you can. Thank you. Bye."

FDOT said in their release that no one in the office heard the voicemail until Friday, a day after the collapse.

Additionally, FDOT said that neither FIU nor the engineering firm ever warned them of any “life-safety issue.”

NTSB investigators were also asked about the cables shown in the photo renderings of what the bridge would look like when complete. In those depictions, the cables spread across the upper portion of the bridge much like the sail of a boat. Investigators said from their understanding, those cables “were only cosmetic; they were not structural members.” They had not been installed at this point because the second part of the bridge had not been built or installed.

Florida Highway Patrol Lt. Alejandro Camacho said that Southwest Eighth Street between Southwest 107th Avenue to Southwest 117th Avenue will remain closed indefinitely as the recovery efforts and investigation continue.

Sumwalt said they expect NTSB investigators to spend between five and seven days at the scene.

“That’s really just the beginning of our investigation because there’s a lot of work that goes into this,” he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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