By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Staff Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

AT LEAST two Chinese workers have died at the Baha Mar construction site since its groundbreaking in 2011, Works Minister Brave Davis said yesterday.

Mr Davis admitted that very little was known about incidents at the site of the $3.4 billion resort, adding that his ministry is aggressively searching for an occupational safety expert to act as a watchdog for industrial practices.

“We are very concerned,” Mr Davis said, “anecdotally we have been hearing about these things.”

Mr Davis said: “In respect to deaths at Baha Mar, my ministry confirmed that there have been at least two deaths on the site. The issue of occupational safety on construction job sites has been a major concern of the ministry, especially over the last six months.”

Mr Davis confirmed the deaths during his remarks at the official opening of the Airport Gateway Project, where he held a moment of silence for two workers who had died during the construction of the dual-lane highway.

Tyson Miller, a 23-year-old employee of Knowles Construction, died after he lost his balance and fell from a Mack trailer bed in January.

In May, a 48-year-old man died after he was electrocuted from contact with a BEC overhead line while driving a dump truck.

Mr Davis said: “We are aggressively trying to recruit an occupational safety person for the ministry who will be charged with the responsibility of going around to these job sites to ensure that proper systems of work are in place to avoid danger to the workers on these sites.”

The Royal Bahamas Police Force does not keep a record of work-related or accidental deaths, according to Superintendent Stephen Dean yesterday. 

Mr Dean explained that accidental or “industrial” deaths are only reported to the press when “it is something really significant”.

He said: “I don’t know if anybody records that information, I can’t tell you which agency would have that. We have all kinds of accidental deaths that happen in the country.”