SAO PAULO — A bridge connecting two northern Brazilian states has collapsed, resulting in the unfortunate deaths of at least two individuals while leaving around a dozen others unaccounted for, according to local authorities. Compounding the difficulties in the rescue efforts is a spill of sulfuric acid, which poses additional hazards for responders.
Video captured by nearby residents showed vehicles traversing the Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira bridge when significant sections of it fell into the river on Sunday afternoon. Police, stationed at the border of Maranhao and Tocantins, reported that eight vehicles, comprising four trucks, two cars, and two motorcycles, remain unlocated. Both police officials and Brazil’s national roadway authority have initiated an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the collapse.
The 533-meter (1,748-foot) bridge, which links the cities of Estreito and Aguiarnopolis, was constructed in the 1960s and is situated approximately 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) north of Brazil’s capital, Brasilia. Magnum Coelho, a colonel with the local firefighters’ team, mentioned during a press briefing that deploying divers to assist in the rescue might be risky due to potential contamination of the Tocantins River by sulfuric acid from the truck that plummeted into the water.
This tragic incident is just one of a series of calamities that struck Brazil over the weekend. A separate accident on Saturday involving a passenger bus and a truck resulted in numerous fatalities along a highway in Minas Gerais, a southeastern state. By Sunday evening, officials confirmed that the death toll had risen to 41.
Local officials indicated that the driver of the truck involved in the Minas Gerais incident is currently at large and may be held criminally accountable for allegedly transporting an overloaded cargo that could have contributed to the accident. The Minas Gerais fire department reported that several passengers were hospitalized following the crash near Teofilo Otoni, with the bus having originated from Sao Paulo and carrying a total of 45 passengers at the time.
In another unfortunate event on the same day, at least ten lives were lost when a small plane crashed in Gramado, a southern town known for its tourist appeal. Over a dozen people were reported injured as a result of the incident, according to Brazil’s Civil Defense Agency. The plane, piloted by Luiz Claudio Galeazzi, a Brazilian entrepreneur, was en route to Sao Paulo State with his family when it struck the chimney of a residence and subsequently crashed into the second floor of a building, finally coming to rest in a cellphone store.
