Six people died and two more were seriously injured Thursday after the bridge on which their bus was traveling collapsed.

The accident happened at 6:25 a.m. when the driver of the bus traveling from Turrubares to Orotina ignored the weight restriction sign and crossed the narrow wooden suspension bridge, known as the Puente Angosto de Turrabares, according to Transport Minister Karla González.

As the bus was halfway across the 50-meter, one-lane bridge, one of the principal steel cables supporting the wooden structure snapped, causing the bus to fall six meters into the Río Tárcoles.

González admitted that the bridge was “seriously fatigued” and that a 75-meter iron reinforcement had been bought in 2002 for the bridge, but engineers had not gotten around to attaching it.

“The bridge was seriously fatigued, but it collapsed due to too much weight,” she said.

“We all have to accept responsibility for this tragedy and for the fact that the bridge was neglected, but at the same time, we did put up signs to warn drivers not to cross carrying more than four tones in weight and we can not be expected to put a policeman on the bridge to ensure drivers obey the signs.”

Red Cross spokesman Mario Víquez, said that four people died at the scene, a fifth person died en route to the hospital, and the sixth died at a hospital in Orotina.

Víquez said a six-year-old girl was airlifted to the Children's Hospital in San José, approximately 90 kilometers from the scene of the accident. She was in a critical condition Thursday night.

Another 15 people were taken to hospitals in Alajuela and San José where they were treated for minor injuries and shock.

“Fortunately the bus landed directly on its wheels,” Víquez said, “or else many more people could have died.”

Rescue services used a small boat to free the trapped passengers in an operation that took five hours and involved ambulances from Orotina, Puriscal, Alajuela, San José and Jacó.

The Turrubares bus makes the journey twice daily across the bridge, which is believed to have been built between 1920 and 1924. According to the daily La Nación, the poor condition of the bridge had been reported to the authorities by residents of the zone on several occasions.

The bridge is commonly referred to as a hammock bridge because of the way it sways when vehicles cross it.

Hammock bridges are still common in rural areas of Costa Rica.

A fundraising, 30-hour comedy and concerts for children will begin Friday at Parque de la Paz, just east of San José.

The marathon 30 Hours of Fun for Children, an annual charity event, will raise money for the Costa Rica Debra Foundation and Works of the Holy Spirit Association.

The event, which starts at 6 a.m. today and finishes Saturday at noon, will be broadcast live on Omega Estéreo 105.1FM.

A variety of national music groups are expected to perform.

The Costa Rica Debra Foundation is a nonprofit organization that works to improve the lives of children suffering from severe skin disorders.

Works of the Holy Spirit Association helps those marginalized from society as a result of extreme poverty or alcohol and/or drug dependency.

Costa Rica fell eight slots, landing behind Ghana, Uruguay and Cyprus, in a press freedom evaluation conducted this year.

According to Reporters Without Borders, which has compiled the list since 2002, the country's archaic legislation and outdated defamation practices caused it to sink in the 2009 survey.

Combine a standstill attitude to media treatment with breakthroughs in other countries, and it's easy to see why Costa Rica fell in the rankings, said Benoît Hervieu, Americas correspondent with Reporters Without Borders.

“In reality, 10 points isn't much. But the cessation of Costa Rica explains why other countries rose,” he wrote in an e-mail to The Tico Times.

Eduardo Ulibarri, president of the Institute for the Press and Freedom of Expression (IPLEX) and former editor of the daily La Nación, admits that Costa Rica is dragging its feet.

“One of the principle threats that I see is that we don't advance … we stay in the same position that we are in,” said Ulibarri, who would like to see new legislation protecting journalists in cases relating to defamation and better access to public records.

There is legislation protecting journalists from imprisonment for defamation languishing in the Legislative Assembly, but no legislator has yet made a move to revive it.

Costa Rica is ranked 30 this year, far ahead of neighboring Panama (55) and Nicaragua (76). On the extremes, Denmark came in first and the African country of Eritrea was placed last, at 175.

Countries are judged on protection given to journalists, changes in legislation and access to information, among other criteria.

Six cast-iron street dog caricatures are now on permanent display in the center of San José, calling to public attention the plight of the 1 million abandoned dogs currently roaming Costa Rica.

Designed by renowned Costa Rican artist Francisco Munguía in conjunction with dog charity Noah's Arc Association, the San José Municipality and the magazine Pets y Más, the mini monuments can be found on the south side of Mercado Central.

It is hoped the works will help associations such as Noah's Arc find homes for such animals.

“Street dogs have interested me for a long time now and I see them as a symbol of our society – after all, we are mutts too,” Munguía said, referring to his mixed-blooded Costa Rican kin.

“(Street dogs) are intelligent, resilient and tough but because they have been abandoned and left to their own devices, nobody wants to adopt them.”

The caricatures were inspired by six of the 23 street dogs that Munguía was housing in a purpose-built patio area at the back of his San José home.

Sadly, one of the six dogs, Bobi, has since been put to sleep suffering from an infection.

“We found Bobi in a castration center,” Munguí said. “His nose had been mutilated by a machete or something similar and no one wanted to adopt him. He was one of my favorites and had a lot of character but sadly we had to have him put to sleep because he was in a lot of pain. We are now down to 22.”

The cast-iron monuments stand approximately one meter high and were sprayed in a variety of colors in a car workshop near Munguía's home.

The total cost of the monuments came in at $6,500, of which $4,000 was financed by the municipality and the remaining $2,500 by Noah's Arc and Pets y Más.