Jorge Eliud Galindo Thompson, a 43-year-old construction worker from Honduras, died after falling from the Interstate-395 Signature Overpass construction site in Downtown Miami early Monday morning. Florida Highway Patrol troopers and Miami police officers responded to the scene on Biscayne Boulevard near Northeast Second Avenue shortly before 4 a.m. Thompson had been operating heavy construction machinery on the arched fountain bridge when the fatal accident occurred.
“It still hurts me, I think about it, and I don’t accept it,” said Gloria Santiago, Thompson’s widow, speaking in Spanish. “I can’t accept it.” Santiago described her husband as a humble, hardworking and responsible man who will be laid to rest with family in his native Honduras. She said she has been unable to sleep since receiving news of her husband’s death and is struggling to live without him.
The Interstate-395 Signature Overpass represents a partnership between the Florida Department of Transportation and the Miami-Dade Expressway Authority. The project, designed by Donald Macdonald Architects for the Walsh Group’s Archer Western and The deMoya Group, began construction in 2019. According to FDOT, work on the bridge has been paused following Thompson’s death.
Thompson was born in northwestern Honduras and was proud of his Yoro roots in the city of El Progreso’s Campo Monterrey area. On the “Progreseños 1804” Facebook page, dozens of users wrote messages of condolences for Thompson. Former school classmates and neighbors described him as a good and noble man who had been operating heavy construction machinery for years.
This marks the second serious accident at the same construction site in recent months. On January 6, six workers were injured when they plunged about 30 feet at the Interstate-395 bridge project. All six workers were treated at the hospital, with five released and one remaining hospitalized as of Wednesday. The previous incident also prompted safety investigations at the site.
Both the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and FDOT are conducting investigations into Thompson’s death. The agencies are examining the circumstances that led to the fatal fall from the signature bridge project. Thompson had been proud of his work on the high-profile infrastructure project that spans Downtown Miami.
The investigations into both the January incident and Thompson’s death remain ongoing. FDOT has not announced when construction work on the Interstate-395 Signature Overpass will resume following the latest tragedy.