10 Injured in Pittsburgh Bridge Collapse

At least 10 people were injured after a snow-covered bridge in Pittsburgh collapsed — just mere hours before President Joe Biden’s planned visit to discuss the city’s infrastructure issues.

On Friday, Pittsburgh Public Safety announced at about 7 a.m. that the Forbes Avenue bridge over Fern Hollow Creek in Frick Park had collapsed.

Per CNN, Pittsburgh Fire Chief Darryl Jones said 10 people suffered “minor injuries,” noting that there were four vehicles on the bridge at the time of the collapse. Jones added that three people were taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Additionally, a driver and two passengers who were on a bus when the bridge collapsed are among the injured, reports NBC News.

Per The Associated Press, when the bus was dangling off the bridge, rescue crews formed a human chain to aid in the passengers’ rescue.

NBC News also noted that responders who slipped and fell on the scene were among those hurt.

While speaking to CNN, Jeremy Habowski, who was driving on the bridge at the time of the collapse and was unable to stop in time, said the “scariest part was definitely going over the edge.”

“There was a gap and my car left the ground,” Habowski added.

In an update posted this morning, Pittsburgh Public Safety said they are deploying crews to make sure “there are no victims under the collapsed bridge.”

While city officials have said the collapse caused a gas leak, the AP reports the gas line has since been cut.

President Biden later visited the site of the collapsed bridge and thanked first responders as well as state and local officials for their efforts.

In a speech, Biden spoke about the city’s many bridges and promised to “fix them all.”

“You realize, I’ve been coming to Pittsburgh [for] a long time and as a former Pennsylvanian, I didn’t realize there are literally more bridges in Pittsburgh than any other city in the world. More than Venice. I knew there were a lot of bridges— I had no idea of that. And we’re gonna fix them all,” Biden said.

“It’s not a joke. This is going to be a gigantic change. There’s 43,000 nationwide and we’re sending them money.”