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Collapse Feared When Bus Is Removed From Front Of Building

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MIAMI (CBSMiami) - Miami building officials are worried about a possible partial collapse of a building when they go to remove a bus that crashed into it over the weekend.

The bus slammed into the front of the building at NW 2nd Avenue and 54th Street Sunday after it was involved in a collision with a pickup truck.

Witnesses said the pickup truck ran a red light, crashing into the bus and causing it to slam into the Omega Fashion store. 

Eight people from the bus, including the bus driver, were taken to the hospital with minor injuries. The two people inside the pickup truck were rushed to Ryder Trauma Center.

The impact took out one column and severely damaged another. At the scene, special crews built a support column to secure the building until experts could asses the removal process.

"City officials and county officials are working together to figure out how to remove the bus. There is a concern that as you remove the bus, the building might collapse," said City of Miami spokeswoman Stephanie Severino.

The plan, according to Severino, is to do some additional shoring up of the building with more than the wood bracing that is in place now. After that the bus will be removed, with a contractor on site to deal with any debris as needed. Severino said this may not happen until sometime Tuesday.

"I've been coming here for 40 years, every day, now you can't even go in, what do you think, thank God nobody died but next week, the week after that what am I going to do," said Arsense Omega who owns the store.

The crash happened Sunday morning just before Omega got to work.

"Thank god I was not. It happened so early, it happened at 8:54 and I usually get here at 10 so I was not in there," said Omega.

Omega, an immigrant from Haiti who started the business 40 years ago, said it's a lot to process.

"Ever since I was eight I have been taking care of myself, working hard, doing farm work, doing anything, I would scrub the floor for you, I would do anything just to survive," said Omega.

People in the area noted how much worse things could have been had the business been open or if people would have been in the path of the crash.

"Normally people use that for shade. They wait there for the bus. They don't stand at the bus stop. There could have been kids there. People could have gotten injured. Death could have happened. Thank God nothing worse happened," said Stenney Joseph who works nearby.

City engineers are working to determine if the building will stand once the bus is removed.

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