MILWAUKEE — New security camera footage released from Bayshore shows the moment a section of the parking garage near Trader Joe's collapsed.
The avalanche of concrete and snow just barely misses a driver pulling in seconds before.
On Thursday, the North Shore Fire Chief said they're "99% sure" no one was in that section of the garage during the time of the collapse. However, two cars are buried underneath the snow and concrete.
Shoppers at Bayshore in the hours following the collapse described being shocked, terrified, and alarmed.
"It could happen at any time when you go into a parking structure. It could collapse, you just never know," said Sarah Brennan who frequents the shopping center and often uses that parking structure.
It's a sentiment shared by Attorney Al Foeckler with Cannon and Dunphy.
"When the news broke, I have to admit my stomach dropped," Foeckler said the day after the collapse.
Crews will continue to work through the weekend to melt the snow and the cause of the collapse isn't known yet, although the fire chief said it was likely caused by heavy snow piled up.
Many are now wondering, who's responsible? The answer to that may take a while.
"No one wants to admit that it was their fault. It shouldn't happen. I mean it's really scary, it just should not happen. And whoever's at fault needs to be held accountable because that's the only way we can prevent it going forward," Foeckler said.
The Department of Safety and Professional Services said parking structures are inspected when they're first built, but after that, there's no re-inspection unless an issue is raised or the building is changed in some way.
The City of Glendale says the responsibility of inspection, maintenance, and upkeep falls on the owner of the garage.
"In a situation like this, unfortunately, everyone is kind of pointing the finger at each other and that's going to take some time to sort out," Foeckler said.
The collapse at Bayshore also has people thinking about how snow is removed at parking structures. TMJ4 went out to several in Milwaukee County on Friday to see what snow removal looks like.
The parking structure on Water St. near the Marcus Center pushes snow off the building. The garage near the Giannis mural downtown has a snow chute. Another garage downtown closed off the top floor and left the snow in an even layer. The garage next to the Metro Market in Shorewood pushed snow into multiple piles at the edges and corners of the top floor.
Foeckler just hopes what happens at Bayshore catches the attention of parking structure owners and operators.
"I hope that this is a wake-up call that either there will be some type of inspection that are put into place. Either voluntarily or through the state. Or secondly, any owners of parking garages come up with a plan on how to deal with snow, heavy snow," he said.
Foeckler said in his experience litigation from this incident is likely to take years.
