MIAMI _ Miami-Dade Fire Rescue workers, homicide detectives, engineers and the NTSB worked through the slow, painstaking process Thursday night of clearing rubble, documenting evidence and trying to remove the dead after a pedestrian bridge collapsed Thursday at Florida International University.
At a Friday morning briefing, Miami-Dade police spokesman Alvaro Zabaleta said six people are now confirmed dead. What wasn't clear: whether some of those dead still remain trapped in vehicles under the collapsed walkway.
"They're using a lot of the heavy equipment," Zabaleta said. "It's a slow process because of the unsteadiness of the structure."
Earlier in the morning police said the search and rescue had turned to a recovery _ meaning police no longer believe there are any survivors.
Zabaleta said they were able to determine that most likely through crawling through the chunks of concrete and observing.
"Most likely through visual," Zabaleta said. "Our priority is to get the bodies out."
Still, none of the dead have been named. And Zabaleta said even though homicide detectives are separating evidence from the debris, the priority is getting the bodies out from under the bridge.
Police, who have taken the lead in the investigation, believe there are still eight vehicles trapped under the bridge. In an interview on WIOD 610 AM Friday morning, Juan Perez, director of the Miami-Dade Police Department, said rescue workers have confirmed at least five bodies remain under the bridge, although that number could rise.
Perez also said criminal charges are possible, depending on the results of ongoing investigations by the National Transportation Safety Board and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. State attorney Katherine Fernandez-Rundle is scheduled to visit the scene Friday.
Fire rescue vehicles transported 10 people to Kendall Regional Medical Center on Thursday, according to the hospital's public relations director, Peter Jude.
One of the victims died at the hospital.
Kendall Regional Medical Center director Dr. Mark McKenney told ABC News the patients being treated range in age from 20 to 50 and suffered level-one trauma injuries. "One patient arrived in a coma with severe extremity injuries," McKenney said Thursday night. Eight other patients were admitted with less severe injuries such as broken bones and abrasions.
The engineers on the scene work with Miami-Dade Fire Rescue, not any of the bridges contractors.
While it is still unclear whether the bridge collapse was the result of a design error or something that went wrong during construction, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez said that workers were conducting a stress test on the unfinished and vulnerable bridge Thursday.
Overnight, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio _ who had just left the site of the bridge collapse _ tweeted: "The cables that suspend the #Miami bridge had loosened & the engineering firm ordered that they be tightened. They were being tightened when it collapsed today."
FIU President Mark B. Rosenberg also used Twitter to express his condolences to the family and loved ones of the people affected by the bridge collapse.
