By Belize Live News Staff: A construction worker has died in a workplace accident at a building site north of San Pedro Town, police have confirmed.
The victim has been identified as 40-year-old Hever Badal Torres, a Mexican construction foreman from Cunduacán, Tabasco, Mexico. Torres was working on the roof of an unfinished structure about 3.5 miles north of San Pedro when the incident occurred around 12:30 p.m. Saturday.
According to initial reports, Torres had been hauling sheets of galvanized zinc toward the northwest corner of the rooftop, where an opening remained. Two other construction workers, Salvador Villa Gomez Opengo and Raul Mendoza Cruz, were working on opposite ends of the building when they heard a loud bang.
When they searched for Torres, they found him lying face-up beneath the building’s ground floor. Efforts to revive him by Island Emergency Ambulance personnel were unsuccessful, and he was later pronounced dead at the San Pedro Polyclinic.
Police investigators found evidence at the scene suggesting Torres accidentally stepped onto a compromised section of the galvanized roof, which buckled under his weight, causing him to fall.
Torres suffered serious injuries, including a major head trauma, a fractured elbow, and several lacerations to his back. His body was transported to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital morgue, where a post-mortem examination is pending.
Police continue their investigation into the incident, and statements have been recorded from witnesses at the scene.
