The recent news that Bloomberg broke on worker safety in the Tesla Tunnels recalls another investigation on the Strip not too long ago. In 2008, Las Vegas Sun reporter Alexandra Berzon started looking into an unusual number of construction deaths at the CityCenter project — nine fatalities in 16 months. Her months of reporting revealed that 24 hour construction schedules on congested sites had created unsafe conditions — and moreover, that the authorities responsible for oversight, including Nevada OSHA, federal OSHA, and union officials, fell short in their duties.
Berzon, along with her colleagues, published 53 stories and 21 editorials on the issue, and their reporting was cited in Congressional hearings on OSHA reform. And crucially, in the wake of the Sun’s work, construction workers joined forces, walking off the job together to demand safer conditions, after which no more deaths occurred.
For their courageous reporting, The Las Vegas Sun was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 2009. As echoes of this story resound today, some questions remain: Have we learned our lesson? And what price are we willing to pay for the breakneck pace of growth and development in our city?
