People Crushed by Collapsed Overpass in Belo Horizonte

Public Transportation Bus Partially Crushed by Slab of Collapsed Overpass

An overpass across Avenida Pedro I in the Saint John the Baptist neighborhood (bairro São João Batista) in Belo Horizonte, a host city for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, collapsed and crushes at least two people to death. Mayor of Belo Horizonte Márcio Lacerda said poor work or error in design are being investigated as possible causes.

The overpass was being built to accommodate the flow of traffic for the world cup. But as its scheduled completion did not happen on time, the final touches were only hastily done which likely contributed to the collapse. The two people confirmed killed by the collapse were 25 year old Hanna Cristina dos Santos – driver of the bus, and Charles Frederico Moreira dos Nascimento – driver of Fiat Uno. 22 additional people were injured.

Lt. Col. Edgar Estevo da Silva (there had to be one), communications adviser from the Fire Department of Minas Gerais, said in a press conference, that despite the tragic loss of life, the collapse happened during the least busy time of day. The throughway under the overpass sees bumper to bumper traffic during the peak house so if the overpass collapsed then, the death toll would have been much higher.

The crash site is about 5 miles from Mineirão stadium, which will host one of the World Cup semi-final matches on July 8, and 10 kilometers from the Rooster City (Cidade do Galo), the Training Center of Atlético in Minas Gerais, where team Argentina is stationed.

Props to Best Gore member Another Brazilian for his contribution to the post. Video of the aftermath from the ground level is below. It shows injured commuters being taken away from the crushed bus and from around 0:58 you can see the crushed bus driver twitch as she’s dying. I think the bus driver was a woman:

Here’s the moment of collapse captured on a ground level CCTV camera:

And a gallery of a few photos: