Labour ministry awaits report on construction site deaths

State agencies including the Ministry of Labour were up to late yesterday still awaiting the outcome of investigations into the incident which left two men dead at a construction site on Barbican Road in upper St Andrew on Thursday.

Kirk Vernon, better known as 'Cornerstone', and 27-year-old Orlando Bennett died when the walls of a trench they were working in collapsed, trapping them under a mountain of dirt.

There was no work on the site yesterday, but all day, co-workers and residents of the area drifted to the place where the two men lost their lives.

Theories on collapse cause

Persons shared memories of their fallen colleagues and gave their theories as to why the walls of the trench, which they claimed were more than 25 feet high, collapsed.

"Over there so is a old water pump, so the place must soft, and all now is not the top drop down, is the side drop pon di man dem," Owen Reid said as he pointed to where the men had died.

"My brother (Johnny Reid) is one of the first man reach in di trench as di man a bawl, and mi brother a say, 'Which part you deh? Which part you deh?' as him a try use him hand to find di man dem who trap," Reid added.

Other persons claimed that Cornerstone was not slated to work inside the trench on Thursday but found himself there after the person who should have worked failed to show.

With grief and some anger etched on their faces, the workmen told The Gleaner how they avoided the trench on Thursday, and their reaction to the tragedy.

"Me cook mi favourite dish - rice and peas and pork - and all now me no eat a plate. A the first me smoke off three packs of cigarettes and mi can't believe say a yah so we work every day and mi friend dead," Reid said

The Ministry of Labour and the National Water Commission (NWC) have launched an investigation into the incident.

The construction was being carried out by Ronham and Associates Limited on behalf of the NWC.

It involves the laying of new and bigger sewer pipes along Barbican Road, Paddington Terrace, Cedar Valley, and Standpipe, among other communities.