Charges dropped in Brad Duxbury mine death case

Prosecutors have made a shock move in the case against four workers charged after two separate incidents at an underground Qld coal mine that left one worker serious injured and another crushed to death. DETAILS

Brad Duxbury died in the Carborough Downs mine in November 2019.

Prosecutors have dropped the case against four workers charged after two separate incidents at an underground coal mine three months apart that left one worker seriously injured and another crushed to death.

On November 25, 2019 Ipswich grandfather Brad Duxbury, 57, was fatally crushed while repairing machinery at Carborough Downs mine at Coppabella in the Bowen Basin after defective equipment failed to stop falling coal.

It was alleged an increased risk of face spall linked to geological faults had been identified at that site one month earlier.

Carborough Downs Mine Management and Russell Clive Uhr, who held the position of site senior executive at the mine in the months leading up to the tragedy, were charged with failing to discharge health and safety obligations causing death.

Brad Duxbury was killed at Carborough Downs mine site on November 25, 2019.

Three months before Mr Duxbury’s death, bord and pillar operator Cameron Best was seriously injured by a falling roof linked to a geological fault within three weeks of similar collapses in the same area.

As a result of Mr Best’s injuries, charges were laid against coal mine workers Gary Roy Jones, Bernard Vandeventer and Kevin James Casey, and mine operator Carborough Downs Coal.

Each were charged with failing to discharge health and safety obligations.

Matters were mentioned in Mackay Industrial Magistrates Court on Tuesday where Workplace Health and Safety prosecutors said charges would be dropped against Mr Uhr, Mr Jones, Mr Vandeventer and Mr Casey.

While the charges against Carborough Downs Mine Management would proceed to sentence.

This is the second time the case has come before the courts.

It has previously been dismissed after it was revealed charges were filed in the wrong jurisdiction.

The sentence has been adjourned to April 2024.

Carborough Downs Mine Carborough Downs Mine

The Mining and Energy Union expressed its disappointment in the decision to drop charges against senior managers over Mr Duxbury’s death but welcomed news the mine operator would be sentenced.

“How can mineworkers have confidence in the system that is meant to protect them when they see their workmates killed and injured without consequence,” MEU Queensland President Mitch Hughes said.

On Wednesday the union wrote to the WHS Prosecutor calling for charges to be laid over an unrelated, high potential incident at Crinum underground mine in December 2022, where computer systems controlling safety measures such as ventilation and gas monitoring systems were turned off while workers were underground.

The MEU is calling for charges against employees allegedly involved in turning off the systems without authorisation for what it claimed could amount to a breach in the Coal Mining Safety and Health Act.

Mr Hughes said the MEU would continue to pursue justice for killed and injured workers.

“Grieving families and communities have heard too many times that charges have been dropped, or cases are held up for years on end,” he said.

“Our Justice for Miners campaign is about making sure the Work Health and Safety Prosecutor and Resources Safety and Health Queensland are held to account for pursuing successful prosecutions.

The publication contacted the Office of the Work Health and Safety Prosecutor regarding the decision to drop charges against four workers over the incidents at Carborough Downs.

“As the matter of Carborough Downs Coal Management is before the court, the OWHSP declines to comment,” a spokeswoman said.