Thirty people are rescued after a bridge collapse between RS and SC; there are wounded and missing | Rio Grande do Sul

People are injured after bridge between RS and SC falls

People were injured after a bridge that connects Torres, in Rio Grande do Sul, to Passo de Torres, in Santa Catarina, fell in the early hours of this Monday (20). The bridge is over the Mampituba River and is about 30 meters long.

The stretch is connected by a suspension bridge, which is supported by cables, for pedestrian crossing. According to Torres Tourism secretary, Matheus Junges, the accident happened around 2:30 am, when a group of people were returning on foot from Passo de Torres to Torres after a Carnival party.

According to the city hall, about 100 people were on top of the bridge, which only has a capacity of 20 (a sign on the site informs).

Responsibility for the bridge, inaugurated in the 1980s, belongs to the two municipalities, Passo de Torres and Torres. According to the government, the maintenance of the structure was up to date and the documentation was regular, which allowed the safe passage of people. However, the suspicion is that overweight caused the accident.

Without the suspension bridge, people can access Passo de Torres from Torres, and vice versa, through the José Mário Soares Noronha bridge, as well as via roads and highways.

“When we realized it, we had already fallen into the water. It was very fast. We only heard people falling into the water and saw people climb to the surface. (…) We were scared, we felt this despair” , says Luciana Soares Tavares.

According to her and her friend Juliana Barbieri, also a university student, there were people running over the bridge and rocking the structure. This, along with overweight, must have caused the collapse of the bridge, according to the Fire Department.

Luciana and Juliana say they left a bar in Torres when they decided to go to Carnival in Passo de Torres. In their assessment, it would be faster to go over the suspension bridge.

According to them, as there were many people on the bridge, they decided to wait for part of them to leave the bridge in order to cross. However, in the middle of the journey, when they were already crossing, the bridge gave way and they fell into the water.